- The Samsung Galaxy Ring 2 is in danger, as Samsung would be reevaluating its strategy
- It will not appear at the presentation of next year’s Samsung Galaxy Unpacked
- This is reportedly in response to poor sales and a legal dispute with Oura.
When it was first released in 2024, there was a lot of excitement around the Samsung Galaxy Ring. It was a bold move by Samsung that seemed to be paying off as pre-orders sold out in some regions. It also got very good reviews: we named it our best smart ring, for example.
However, things have apparently come to a standstill. English-speaking Korean website Koreajoongang Daily reports that “industry sources” say the Samsung Galaxy Ring 2 will not appear at next year’s Unpacked presentation, which typically takes place around January/February.
In fact, there may not be any Samsung Galaxy Ring 2 at all, as strong pre-order interest ultimately translated into what the site calls “disappointing sales.” Last year, Sammobile reported that demand for Galaxy Rings was so high that Samsung increased production, adding an additional 600,000 units to ship globally.
It now appears that if previous reports are true (and it’s worth taking these baseless rumors with a pinch of salt), Samsung overestimated overall demand, and the rush of pre-orders was perhaps limited to Samsung power users and early adopters.
Oura’s legal dispute
Samsung’s main competition in this area is Oura, maker of the Oura Ring 4. Oura has been producing smart rings since, well, before they were cool, and now, with challengers popping up in the space, it’s eager to establish itself as the first and only choice.
Oura’s filed a complaint with the International Trade Commission against Samsung, Reebok and other smart ring makers for patent violations, following successful legal action against Ringconn and Circular.
It is not surprising that Samsung wants to wait for the outcome of the legal dispute before internationally launching a product that may violate copyright law. Waiting could save Samsung money and avoid the need to backtrack or recall products in the future.
The state of smart rings
As we approach 2026, the smart ring category is in a strange place: Despite multiple high-profile launches in 2024 and continued software innovation from companies like Oura (we even named the Oura Ring 4 our health and fitness device of the year), smart rings aren’t showing too many signs of hardware innovation.
These products are essentially a few sensors connected to a rechargeable battery in a nice case, and that’s basically the same for most smart rings right now. Ringconn and Circular can no longer trade in the US thanks to Oura’s legal action, and if Oura has its way, there will be no Galaxy Ring 2 either.
Bucking the trend is the small-batch Pebble Index 01, which is a completely different use case: a microphone and a small button designed as an external memory bank and voice assistant, rather than a health tracker.
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