Samsung's Galaxy Ring to hit market within this year

Samsung Electronics teased the Galaxy Ring at the Galaxy Unpacked 2024 event held in San Jose, California, on Wednesday local time. [YONHAP]

Samsung Electronics is rolling out the Galaxy Ring within this year.

"Galaxy Ring is planned to be launched within this year," Roh Tae-moon, head of Samsung's mobile business division, said during a press conference held after the Galaxy Unpacked 2024 event in San Jose, California, on Wednesday local time.

The Galaxy Ring made a surprise appearance at the Unpacked event in a teaser video where Samsung unveiled its newest Galaxy S24 smartphone. Its appearance was brief and mystical, but that was just about enough to steal the limelight.

"We are taking the possibilities of Samsung Health to the next level," said Dr. Matthew Wiggins from Samsung's Digital Health team at the event.

"By bringing Samsung Health's cutting edge innovations to a brand new form factor. We've created a powerful and accessible health and wellness device to change the shape of future health. Meet the Galaxy Ring."

A brief video teased the ring's silhouette while showing several sensors on its inside. No further details have been shared at the event.

Samsung's smart ring has been rumored to be revealed for some time but the company has never officially acknowledged the existence of finger-based health care device until now.

Last year, Samsung Electronics was found to have registered a number of trademarks related to it with the U.S.Patent and Trademark Office, such as "Samsung Galaxy Ring," "Samsung Curio," "Galaxy Feel" and "Galaxy One," all of which had descriptions that read "smart rings for tracking, gathering, monitoring detecting, recognizing, storing, transmitting, managing and assessing biometric and physiological data."

The Galaxy Ring announcement at the Unpacked event came after Wiggins explained Samsung's AI-boosted wellness and health care technology that analyzes health conditions, including sleeping patterns, and offers personalized coaching.

BY JIN EUN-SOO [jin.eunsoo@joongang.co.kr]