Apple and Samsung: Starting the Smart-Watch War

Samsung (SSNLF.PK) may be rushing to launch a smart watch, as it races to beat Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) to the punch. Apple could release a watch as early as this year.

Samsung and Apple have been in fierce competition for a while now, with Apple continuing to push its ever-popular iPhones all around the world and Samsung rising through the ranks to top Apple and all cellphone makers globally. But, in order to keep that battle fierce, the companies may need to look beyond smartphones.

Growth for the $358 billion global cellphone market is expected to slow to 27 percent this year, and to slow even further to 9.8 percent in 2017. This would leave the companies with much less wiggle room to push out explosively popular new devices or to shift the tides of the competition.

However, the watch industry remains rather untapped…