Samsung hopes to create some distance between its products and those sold by Apple. Perhaps this is an alternative platform of exclusivity. The South Korean technology giant abandoned the iOS system on a pair of Galaxy Watch products recently released. Both the Galaxy Watch 4 and Galaxy Watch 4 Classic released on Wednesday run Wear OS, a wearable device operating system jointly developed by Google and Samsung.
The Wear OS device or at least the Galaxy Watch 4 model is not compatible with iOS, which means that potential buyers cannot pair the device with the iPhone host. But Samsung told the media that the old version of Galaxy Watch will continue to retain compatibility with iOS.
Apple’s iOS system is not the only operating system that missed the Galaxy Watch 4. Samsung stipulates that the wearable device can only be used with mobile phones running Android 6.0 or above, which means that the old version of Android is just as unfavorable as new products.
Samsung introduced iOS compatibility to its wearable device series for the first time in 2016 and launched the Gear 2 smartwatch that year. The device and subsequent models run Samsung’s Tizen operating system.
It is unclear whether all Wear OS devices, including potential future Samsung models, will not be able to use iOS. In any case, in addition to Apple’s own Apple Watch, there are fewer and fewer options for iOS-compatible smartwatches.
In addition to Galaxy Watch 4, Samsung also launched a pair of foldable phones Galaxy Z Fold3 5G and Galaxy Z Flip 3 5G at the event on Wednesday. Samsung hopes that these two smartphones will eat into Apple’s high-end market share as much as possible before the iPhone 13 revision is expected this fall.
