Samsung unveils circular smartwatch, but are apps available?

A logo of Samsung Electronics is seen at its showroom in Seoul, South Korea, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2015. (AP/Lee Jin-man)

NEW YORK -- Samsung is juicing up its smartwatch with a circular face and more battery life than the Apple Watch, but it's unknown how many apps will be available for it.

The limited selection of apps is one of the main challenges facing Samsung's smartwatches. They have been around for longer than the Apple Watch but haven't generated as much interest or sales.

Samsung's newest, the Gear S2, faces competition not just from Apple but also from a variety of manufacturers using Google's Android Wear software. According to IDC, Apple was the No. 2 maker of wearable devices in the April-June quarter, with a 20 per cent worldwide market share, behind the Fitbit and its fitness trackers at 24 per cent. Samsung was fifth with 3.3 per cent.

So far, outside app developers have focused their efforts instead on the Apple Watch and Android Wear watches. Samsung's watches use their own operating system, Tizen, which means extra work adapting apps for them.

Samsung promised a variety of apps designed for the new watch's circular face, but it didn't provide details. The company said demos of the new apps will come Thursday at the IFA tech show in Berlin.

The Korean electronics company didn't announce a price or release date Monday for the S2.

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