Is Samsung running away from the Apple Watch?

Considering how Samsung has been on a smartwatch spree this past year or so it was pretty surprising to see the company not announcing a new smartwatch at this year’s MWC. Samsung explained the reasoning behind this decision to the Wall Street Journal, saying that it wants to take a bit of a break for now so that it can focus on insuring that its next smartwatch is perfect. This break seems to coincide quite conveniently with the upcoming release of the Apple Watch. 

Since Samsung Electronics released its first smartwatch in September 2013, it has been nothing but relentless in putting its stamp on the nascent market for wearable devices. In the one year since the release of that Android-powered smartwatch, the Galaxy Gear, Samsung has released no fewer than six smartwatches. So Samsung’s keynote address at Mobile World Congress here is notable for what isn’t being launched alongside the Galaxy S6: a smartwatch. Samsung executives won’t confirm or deny the notion, but it just might have to do with that other smartwatch about to hit the market — Apple ’s eponymous debut smartwatch, announced last September and set to begin shipping next month. But fear not, smartwatch aficionados. Samsung isn’t sitting still. In an interview, Young-hee Lee, an executive vice president who oversees Samsung’s mobile marketing efforts, says that the company is “working on it,” with an eye on what she called product “perfection.”