Samsung hints at upcoming Gear smartwatch with circular display

Samsung appears to have confirmed rumors about it getting ready to launch a smartwatch with a circular display. A recent Samsung press release announced that the company plans to release the Software Development Kit for its next-gen smartwatch before the official unveiling of the wearable, a first for the company. What's interesting to note, however, is that the blog posts contains a teaser image of a smartwatch with a circular display. While this isn't exactly an official confirmation of the circular-display smartwatch, it's certainly a major hint in that direction.

The upcoming smartwatch will be the seventh in Samsung's Gear line-up. The device is said to be code-named Orbis internally, and may end up being branded as the Samsung Gear A. As most of the other smartwatches in the Samsung Gear family, the Gear A is said to make use of Tizen as the operating system, as Samsung is moving away from Android Wear as a smartwatch OS. The teaser image also mentions that Samsung is already working with developers such CNN, Yelp, Baidu, FidMe, and Apposter.

According to previous rumors, Samsung will launch two versions of the Gear A / Orbis. One is said to come with Bluetooth connectivity, while the more advanced version will come with 3G connectivity and the ability to place voice calls directly from the wristware. Some of the rumored features include a rotating dial that can cycle through open apps, a crown-shaped power button, as well as wireless charging capabilities.