Samsung Gear S2 compatibility with the iPhone coming by end of March

Samsung’s Gear S2 smartwatch will get an update that adds iPhone compatibility by the end of this month, according to a new report.

The move will allow Samsung to compete with the Apple Watch in its own backyard, but some features — such as Samsung Pay — will be lost when the wearable is connected to iOS.

We heard Samsung was working to make the Gear S2 iPhone-friendly back in September, and the South Korean company confirmed it at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas back in January. However, it didn’t provide us with a release date.

According to a tipster in South Korea, Samsung is planning to rollout an update to add iPhone compatibility by the end of March. A Gear Manager app for iOS should accompany it, making the connection between iPhone and Gear S2 possible.

It’s still unclear how well Gear S2 will work with an Apple device, but we expect it to be very similar to an Android Wear device; users will get basic functionality, but some key features will still require an Android smartphone.

Samsung has nothing to lose by making its latest watch compatible withiPhone. No one’s going to ditch their Galaxy smartphone for an iPhone as a result of this move. If anything, it’ll just boost Gear S2 sales. By how much will likely depend on how well it works with iOS.