Next Galaxy Gear ‘an evolution’, S5 could have iris-scanning to rival TouchID

The release of Samsung’s Galaxy Gear smartwatch was underwhelming to say the least, but that’s not stopping the company from hedging its bets on the growing smartwatch market, and releasing a new Galaxy Gear as soon as April this year, along with the Galaxy S5.

In an interview with Bloomberg News, Samsung revealed some alluring details for the upcoming devices. The new Galaxy Gear smartwatch will be an “evolution” of the current offering according to Samsung executive vice president of mobile business, Lee Young Hee:

“When we release our S5 device, you can also expect a Gear successor with more advanced functions, and the bulky design will also be improved.”

According to The Verge, Samsung are looking at including iris-scanning tech as a direct counterpart to Apple’s iPhone 5S Touch ID fingerprint sensor for security purposes.

Lee said at CES 2014 this year, “Many people are fanatical about iris recognition technology… we are studying the possibility.”

Lee added that there will also be one other wearable device announced this year by Asia’s largest tech company. Given that Samsung registered a design for eyeglasses that can pair with, and display information from, a smartphone in October 2013 — our money is on that.

Samsung recently posted its first profit decline since 2010, mostly thanks to investor concerns over sales from the Galaxy S4, although its smartphone marketshare has improved from 3.2% in 2008 up to 32.2% in 2013.