LG to launch its first smartwatch this year

Seoul: LG Electronics Inc. says it will launch a computerised wristwatch later this year, entering a nascent market where Samsung Electronics Co., Sony Corp. and smaller companies such as Pebble are already jostling for dominance.

Park Jong-seok, president of LG's mobile communications division, said early smartwatch models failed to demonstrate why consumers should buy them.

Park said LG's smartwatch will be paired with a smartphone.

LG spokeswoman Kim So-yeong declined to comment on news reports that LG will make a version of Google's smartwatch. LG already makes some of Google's Nexus mobile products.

Samsung unveiled two new smartwatches Sunday on the eve of the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.