Galaxy Note 3’s India launch likely by end of september

Samsung Galaxy Note 3, the recently unveiled flagship phablet of the South Korean company, is expected to arrive in India by the end of September. 

At the global launch event for the device in Germany, the company had announced that the phablet will arrive in 149 countries on September 25. India is one of the biggest markets for Samsung and it has released its top-end devices in the country soon after their global unveiling. In fact, the Galaxy S4 smartphone arrived in India the day it was launched across the world. Galaxy Note II was also launched in India in the first phase of its global roll out. 

Samsung has also said that its Galaxy Gear smartwatch will hit major markets when the new flagship phablet is launched. 

While the major global markets will get the Galaxy Note 3 by the end of the month, the phablet will arrive in the US market in October only. AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon Wireless and US Cellular will carry the Galaxy Note 3 smartphone. Some of the cellular carriers will also sell the Galaxy Gear smartwatch. Major retailers including Best Buy, Amazon.com, RadioShack and Wal-Mart also will carry the smartphone and smartwatch. 

Samsung's new Galaxy Note 3 phablet has a 5.7-inch screen with 1920x1080p resolution and runs on Android 4.3 (Jelly Bean), the latest version of Google's free mobile OS. The device has a 13MP camera and comes with 32GB internal storage and 3GB RAM. The version headed to India will have a 1.9GHz eight-core processor and have connectivity options like 2G, 3G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, infrared, microUSB 2.0 and NFC. 

The Galaxy Gear smartwatch has a 1.6-inch SuperAMOLED screen with 320x320p resolution. This device is powered by Android 4.3 (Jelly Bean) and runs on 800MHz processor and 512MB RAM. It can pair with Samsung's Android 4.3-powered devices like Galaxy Note III phablet and Galaxy Note 10.1 tablet. Priced at $299, the Galaxy Gear lasts for over a day on a single charge. 

This gadget can make and receive phone calls, read text messages and emails, track workouts and capture photos and videos. This smartwatch also has a 1.9MP camera and can receive voice commands via the S Voice app.

Galaxy Gear and Galaxy Note 3 get prices, release dates

Galaxy Gear and Galaxy Note 3 get prices, release dates on T-Mobile

Itching to get your hands — er, wrist — on a Galaxy Gear smartwatch? If so, you don’t have long to wait.

T-Mobile announced Thursday that the smartwatch, as well as the only phone it can be paired with at the moment, will hit stores Oct. 2. The Galaxy Gear will cost $299.99, but consumers should remember that to get the watch to work to its fullest, they’ll also have to pick up a Galaxy Note 3. On T-Mobile, the Galaxy Note 3 costs $199 down, with 24 additional monthly payments of $21.

No matter how you slice it, it’s a pretty hefty investment, though one that people may pay to be on the cutting edge.

The price may prove the biggest obstacle to the Galaxy Gear’s ability to pick up users, since consumers may be unwilling to pick up an accessory that costs as much as a subsidized version of a smartphone.

But that doesn’t mean that wearables are dead in the water. The price of such devices is likely to come down over time, in the same way the price of tablets did, according to Brian Proffitt, an adjunct professor at the University of Notre Dame’s Mendoza School of Business.

“The first tablets . . . were kind of pricey, but others came along at lower price points,” he noted, saying that he expects wearables to follow a similar pattern.

He also thinks that future generations of wearable devices could add a lot of additional features by hooking into multiple gadgets beyond the smartphone. Consumers are increasingly able to control devices and services — such as connection to the lights in your home or your thermostat — through their smartphones. Being able to do that from something you’re wearing may be the next step, he said.

Plus, Proffitt added, the inclusion of near-field communications chips in devices such as the Galaxy Gear also opens up the possibility of letting people pay for things from their wearable gadgets.

“If someone can come up with a secure payments app for these things,” Proffitt said, it could drive up adoption of electronic payments through gadgets — a trend that has yet to really catch on with smartphones.