Samsung’s latest product isn’t a phone or a smartwatch, it’s even smaller. The company is diving into the quick-growing $125 million smart ring market.
Samsung put the Galaxy Ring on display for the first time on Monday in Barcelona at Mobile World Congress (MWC) and showcased what it can do — and how it differs from the company’s Galaxy Watch smartwatch line.
Samsung Galaxy Ring. Credit: Samsung
At a roundtable at the event, Hon Pak, vice president of the digital health team at Samsung said the Galaxy Ring will have “a long battery life” without specifying any numbers and use Samsung’s “leading sensor technology” to track sleep.
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The ring will read heart rate, respiratory rate, restlessness during sleep, and how long it takes a user to fall asleep after going to bed, and then sync that data to the Samsung Health app.
There is also fertility and menstrual cycle tracking, which expands upon Samsung’s existing partnership with Natural Cycles for its smartwatches.
Users will also get a vitality score that “collects data about physical and mental readiness to see how productive you can be,” Pak told CNBC.
Hon Pak, vice president of the digital health team at Samsung. Credit: Samsung
By entering the smart ring market, Samsung pits itself against industry leader Oura, which was founded over a decade ago. Oura has sold over 1 million smart rings as of March 2022 and has a $2.5 billion market valuation. The company sells just one product, the $299 Oura Ring, and includes features like automatic workout-tracking, which Samsung will not have on the Galaxy Ring at launch.
The Galaxy Ring is set to arrive “later this year” and sells itself on screenless simplicity. Pak stated that the ring doesn’t necessarily replace the company’s smartwatch line, but adds to it — users can wear both a Galaxy Watch and a Galaxy Ring at the same time for better sleep tracking or more health data.
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Samsung is also exploring noninvasive glucose monitoring and contactless payments with the Galaxy Ring, according to Pak. Artificial intelligence is also on the company’s radar in the form of a possible AI coach that brings together medical records, physiological data, and wearable data for users.
“There’s a digital assistant coach in the future because we think that’s absolutely needed,” Pak told CNBC.
An AI coach could bring added fees for customers; Pak disclosed to the outlet that Samsung could eventually consider adding a subscription wall to the Samsung Health app if it adds features like AI.
