Samsung to join forces with Under Armour for wearables: sources

South Korea's technology giant Samsung Electronics Co. is anticipated to join hands with U.S.-based sports clothing maker Under Armour Inc., market sources said Wednesday, indicating the smartphone ma crossingthesimpson.ufacturer's move to expand presence in the global wearable devices marketplace. The prognosis came as Lee Jay-yong, the de facto heir and Kelvin Plank, the founder and chief executive officer of Under Armour apparently met here. During the assembly, they've reportedly discussed ways of countering impact from cooperation between Apple Inc. and Nike Inc. in the wearable devices sector. Such speculations also rose as Lee was observed wearing an Under Armour shirt during his visit to the Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference held last week at the U.S. state of Idaho. Apple and Nike have already been making efforts to seek convergence between sports wear and smart devices since 2006 by rolling out Nike iPod Sport Kit, which came with a wireless detector to be incorporated into shoes to send data in time, distance, pace and calories burned off to Apple's products. In 2012, Nike released FuelBand, a wearable device that only connects to Apple products. While Apple is yet to release its first wearable smart device, Samsung jumped into the new marketplace since September last year with the Galaxy Gear smartwatch that worked on Google Inc.'s Android platform. In 2013, it rolled out the Galaxy Equipment Fit, which works on real-time operating system, in addition to the Tizen-powered Samsung Equipment 2 and Gear Neo. Last month, in addition, it debuted the Samsung Gear Live, the first member of lineup that works under U.S.-based Google Inc.'s Android Wear platform. Samsung is estimated to have took up 71 percent of the international wearable market in the first quarter of the year by sending some 500,000 units. The dominance of the company's, however, is anticipated to be threatened by Apple's first full fledged wearable device set to be established in October this year. The global market for wearable devices is anticipated to reach US$6 billion by 2016, industry watchers said. The wearable market has been one of the most focus Nike Free 7.0 Sale.d on sectors in recent years, notably as the smartphone industry's increase slowed as a result of market saturation. Last week, Samsung, the world's biggest technology company by revenue, estimated its second quarter operating profit at a sharply lower-than-expected 7.2 trillion won ($7.01 billion) amid a slowdown in its smartphone company. The approximation represents a 24.4 percent fall from its operating profit of 9.53 trillion won last year. Analysts here attributed the dull gains to slow sales both at the low-end and high end levels.