Just how truly terrible was the first-generation Samsung Galaxy Gear? It was so bad that even Samsung’s marketing wizards had a tough time making ads for it that weren’t horrible. And it was also so bad that Steve Wozniak, who despite being Apple’s cofounder isn’t afraid to criticize Apple or praise rival products such as the Microsoft Surface, couldn’t stand to use it for more than a day.
In an interview with Xconomy, Wozniak said that he hasn’t found most of the smartwatches released so far to be very appealing and he in particular singled out the first-generation Galaxy Gear as a very unworthy device.
“That was the only technology I bought to experiment with that I threw out after half a day, sold it on eBay because it was so worthless and did so little that was convenient,” Wozniak said. “You had to hold it up to your ear and stuff.”
Looking more broadly at smartwatches as a whole, Wozniak tells Xconomy that he wants to see two things from them: Larger displays and freedom from being connected to your smartphone.
In the first instance, Wozniak admits that there’s no way bigger displays are tenable in the near future, although he thinks that flexible, foldable displays that can wrap around your wrist might be the best solution. And when it comes to having watches that are independent from your smartphone, we will likely start seeing those in the next year, although Apple’s first-generation iWatch is likely going to be more of an iPhone accessory than a standalone device.
