Galaxy Gear To Finally Support Galaxy S4, SIII, Note 2, and other Samsung devices

One of the Galaxy Gear’s most unfortunate drawbacks was the watch being incompatible with anything except the Galaxy Note 3. It seems that this is not the case from now on. Beginning this month, Gear will finally spread its horizons and play nicely with other Galaxy devices.

Samsung announced Wednesday that Galaxy Gear will now work with the Galaxy S4, S III, and Note II through the latest Jelly Bean update. Samsung will also extend Gear compatibility to other Galaxy devices through a separate software update beginning at the end of October. Expect Gear compatibility to make its way to the Galaxy S4 mini, S4 Active, Mega 5.8, Mega 6.3, and S4 Zoom.

In the run-up to the Galaxy Gear announcement, everyone was hoping for an open device that could work with all mobile devices, but were disappointed to learn that Samsung seemed to view Gear as little more than an accessory for the Note 3.

While this new approach may help Gear survive beyond this Christmas season, it is probably not a viable long-term strategy. With the bounty of smartwatch competition coming down the pike, the market winner will be the one that successfully embraces the largest pool of varied mobile phone spectrum, not just a narrow band.

Thank you PCWorld for providing us with this information.