Samsung’s new Galaxy Ring.
Samsung’s highly anticipated Galaxy Ring will be available to purchase in August this year, according to a new report.
The news comes from Korean outlet, The Elec, which states that the smart ring will be announced alongside Samsung’s new foldable phones at the Galaxy Unpacked event this summer. The device will then go on sale “as early as August,” according to the publication.
That lines up with last year’s release schedule for the Galaxy Fold 5 and Flip 5, which were announced on July 26th and shipped on August 11th. The Elec also says that Samsung has produced 400,000 units of the Ring and will adjust production numbers based on demand.
Interestingly, there’s a small price hint buried at the end of the story, which states that “the prevailing view is that the design and price will determine whether the Galaxy Ring will establish itself in the market.”
That’s not rocket science, but it lines up with my suspicion that Samsung will price this new device very aggressively. The company has form here and it isn’t shy about undercutting, or directly targeting, the competition.
With every major smartphone release, Samsung will temporarily up its trade-in prices for Apple products to tempt iPhone users away. It is doing exactly that right now. If you go to Samsung’s site and click on the Galaxy S24 Ultra, the page displays a highlighted price for your old iPhone 13 Pro Max ($500), which is more than it typically offers for the Apple phone. This is on top of deep discounts, deals and freebies it gives away during a flagship phone launch.
Samsung’s main competition is the Oura Ring, which starts at $300. I expect the company will at the very least match this price, if not slightly undercut it. What’s likely is that the ring will be bundled in with one of its new foldable phones. Or, Samsung will make it clear that there’s no ongoing subscription to unlock certain features, which is the case with the Oura Ring.
Elsewhere, The Elec’s source claims that the Galaxy Ring will be released without medical device certification, which would put it into a “wellness” device category. This is because certification with U.S. and Korean regulators takes longer than the time it takes to create the wearable. So the company expects to have certain features (ECG and blood oxygen measurement, for example) certified after launch.
This also feeds into Samsung’s post-launch strategy, which appears to be to add “medical device functions in the long term,” the story explains. Adding more functionality, for free, is becoming a popular move for hardware companies. Samsung has rolled out new AI features to its older Galaxy phones, Oura added a new Resilience measurement for existing users recently and Google releases new AI-powered features quarterly to Pixel phone owners.
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