Samsung hasannounced it plans to offer a smart ring, and the company has chosen to call it the Galaxy Ring. The thing is, Samsung already called a product this exact name way back in 2013. Just about everyone on the AP staff had forgotten about it, that is, except for our Gadgets Editor Taylor Kerns, who apparently has the memory of an elephant. So even those who have spent the better part of a decade covering Android phones completely forgot about the budget device that first debuted the name Galaxy Ring. While it wasn’t obvious at first that Samsung is indeed leaning on an old name, Virgin Mobile did offer a phone known as the Galaxy Ring, and it’s as forgettable as you’d expect as a budget phone for an MVNO. Still, you have to admit it’s pretty funny that Samsung couldn’t come up with a fresh name for its upcoming smart ring, which smacks of a rushed product jumping on a burgeoning bandwagon.
The OG Galaxy Ring, a budget phone for Virgin Mobile
While I can’t blame Samsung for reusing the Galaxy Ring namesake eleven years after everyone forgot about the OG phone on Virgin Mobile, it sure would be nice to see some original names in the tech world, as we already have our hands full withGoogle’s endless naming boondoggles, the last thing we need is for Samsung to toss its hat into the ring (pun intended) with a lack of creativity, which increasingly feels like the status quo for the company over the last two years.
7 new things we’ve learned about the Samsung Galaxy Ring
The smart ring is coming later this year
What other name possibilities are there?
Feels like slim pickings to me
You have to wonder, what could Samsung have called its smart ring if it didn’t want to reuse Galaxy Ring? It’s not like the product offers a lot of room to name it; it’s a ring, after all, which really limits things. If the company went with Samsung Smart Ring, it doesn’t offer the cachet you’d want from your smart jewelry, leaving Galaxy Ring as an easy solution despite its previous use. Was there ever any other option? Because I’m coming up short, and I spend a good portion of my days pitching snappy titles using hot-ticket words in my work, and I still got bumpkiss.
The first Galaxy RIng up close and personal
But perhaps my lack of creativity coming up with a slick smart ring name has a lot to do with finding the entire market of smart wearables incredibly boring and stagnant. I’ve yet to use a smartwatch that actually compliments my life in any meaningful way, and, by virtue, I expect the same from smart rings. While rings can offerbetter battery life, you still have to charge the sucker every so often, an annoyance that outweighs anything smart wearables can do, in my opinion. I don’t need apps to track my blood pressure and workouts. I’m a forty-year-old man who has lived long enough to know what is and isn’t good exercise, and my doctor takes care of my overall health concerns. Why would I ever need a constant reminder of my health as a healthy person? Where is the benefit?
The Galaxy Ring will provide longer battery life than Samsung’s smartwatches
The smart ring should offer multi-day battery life
Perhaps a lack of creativity is the real issue?
Along with some bandwagon hopping
At the end of the day, I believe Samsung’s lack of creativity when naming its new smart ring has a lot to do with the entire smart wearable market failing to communicate a reason to exist in the first place. A new smart ring has me as excited as a new smart vacuum; that is to say, I just don’t care. And reusing the name Galaxy Ring smacks of a lack of creativity for an item I’m not even sure Samsung believes will sell well, or else it would have put more effort into the name. Heck, as it is, I’m barely sold on buying real jewelry made out of precious metals that actually retain a value, and you don’t have to charge that stuff every week like you would a smart ring. Perhaps it’s a silly thing, but now that I’ve been reminded about the first Galaxy Ring released as a budget phone on Virgin Mobile, the new one that will exist as an actual ring for your finger already feels poorly thought out when the name isn’t even unique.
