Smart Watches: Yay or Nay?

JK Shin, head of Samsung Mobile Communications, presents the Samsung Galaxy Gear in Berlin, Germany on Wednesday, September 4, 2013. Browse through the other contenders battling it out for a place on your wrist.

Samsung just launched their next, new, big time product. It's the Galaxy Gear smartwatch. 

 The smartwatch will connect and communicate with Galaxy phones and tablets

 Photos of battle of the Smart watches below.

Most current smartwatches rely on smartphone technology paired with Bluetooth to obtain data and notifications. A long-rumored 'iWatch' from Apple could take the same approach, or put more computing power directly into the device. Although the product is yet to be announced, Apple filed for the 'iWatch' trademark on June 3.

The Italian-made aluminum 'I'm Watch,' announced at last year's Consumer Electronics Show (CES), is one of the pricier options at $399. It comes in seven colors and runs the Droid 2 operating system. It connects to Android smartphones using Bluetooth.

Apple's sixth-generation iPod nano was a small, square touchscreen and has since been replaced by the rectangular seventh-generation nano. Spotting the potential to turn the iPod into a watch face, companies such as Lunatik make kits that included mounts and slick straps.

The MetaWatch has a retro-looking, black-and-white screen, but it can connect to the iPhone 4s and iPhone 5, in addition to Android devices. It is also a water-resistant sports watch that tracks pace and distance. The watch starts at $179 and is available with various colored bands or in black or white leather.

Unveiled by TomTom in April, the new Nike+ Sportwatch colours have been chosen to match Nike's apparel and shoe ranges. Features include an extra-large display, a graphical training partner and a one-button control. Colors include classic black/anthracite, stylish anthracite/blue glow and high impact volt green.

Another full color touchscreen device, the $130 Sony SmartWatch only syncs with Android devices. When paired with a phone over Bluetooth, it can receive notifications for e-mail, texts, social networks and calendars.

There you have it! Here's someone's view on it;

 "Sure there are risks. You have to protect your data like you do on your laptop. And you have to hope the bad guys don't invade the cloud services that will start popping up all over the place.

But one way or another, the cloud is in your future.

So Samsung wants you to buy a Samsung smartwatch to talk with your Samsung Galaxy smartphone that talks with your Samsung Galaxy tablet and you can store all your information on the Samsung cloud or Google cloud.

The benefit to Samsung and Google is the more pieces of the puzzle you buy from them, the more they've got you. And they want to get you.

What about Apple? They reserved the name iWatch a while back and we expected them to introduce their new device first. This time however Samsung beat Apple to the punch.

Will Apple introduce their iWatch? I say yes. Whether it's next week or in the near future I do think Apple will jump into the same smart watch space. It's the next wireless frontier.

Then, we have to ask, what's coming next? Quite a bit, actually. And it will all be linked together over the cloud.

Can the smartwatch really compete in an already crowded market of mobile devices or will customers reject it? Without hesitation, yes.

Is this a gamble on Samsung's part? Well, on one hand, every new innovative idea is a gamble. But I think this will be a big success and get bigger over time. Just like with the tablets.

The whole idea here is for companies like Samsung, Google and Apple to build an environment that both captivates and captures their audience. The cloud will be the core technology that will tie all these innovative ideas together."

What do you think?