The Gear is a foul ball in the early innings of smartwatches

But it is a very young field, and Samsung is not the brightest hope, given the company's willingness to try out a rough product in every single market category. To loosely quote a tweet I saw yesterday (and cannot find now): the one thing you can say for certain about the Galaxy Gear is that Apple's connected watch will look nothing like it. Technology products always start out bulky, a bit confused, seemingly unnecessary, and with many key features missing.

But very low-power-demanding Bluetooth is hitting more phones, and the last-generation processors that power these smaller devices are getting better and better. And once we learn what people don't want to have their watch do, you will see products that are smarter about what they provide. Not the Gear, though; I would not buy that.