Samsung might release six smartwatches before Apple even releases one

In less than a year, Samsung has released five — yes, five — different smartwatches that have released with four different operating systems. And now SamMobile points out that a sixth might soon be on the way because Samsung has filed for a trademark for a device called the Gear S.

While the trademark filing doesn’t give any hint about what the Gear S will be like,SamMobile speculates that it could be the first Samsung smartwatch that you won’t have to tether to your smartphone to get data connectivity. SamMobile has also been hearing that Samsung is planning to unveil “multiple” wearable devices alongside the Galaxy Note 4 this fall, so it’s entirely possible that Samsung is going to have released seven or eight different smartwatches by the time that Apple gets around to putting out the iWatch.

For those of you who have trouble keeping track, Samsung has so far released the Galaxy Gear, which ran on Android when it first came out and now runs on Tizen; the Gear 2 and Gear 2 Neo, which both ran on Tizen from the start; the Gear Fit, which runs on an entirely separate platform from Android or Tizen; and the Gear Live, which runs on Android Wear.

In all likelihood the Gear S will run on Samsung’s own Tizen platform since the company wants to entice developers to create a robust ecosystem for its mobile operating system. That said, would it shock us if the Gear S released with a completely different operating system that we’ve never heard of before? Sadly, it would not.