Samsung working on its own smart watch

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SEOUL, March 20 (UPI) -- As rumors of an Apple watch grow, competitor Samsung says it's been working on its own smart watch for some time.

In an interview in South Korea, Lee Young Hee, executive vice president of Samsung's mobile business, confirmed the existence of a smart watch development program, CNN reported Wednesday.

"We've been preparing the watch product for so long," Lee said. "We are working very hard to get ready for it. We are preparing products for the future, and the watch is definitely one of them."

Apple and Samsung, which have been battling in the smartphone market for years, appear ready to go to battle in the wearable tech market as well.

Mobile shopping site BuyVia said it conducted a survey before the announcement of the Samsung watch that found 26 percent of respondents said they would be interested in buying a rumored Apple iWatch, 38 percent said they were not interested and 36 percent said they hadn't decided.

The top five features survey respondents said would interest them in a smart watch were email and texting, phone calls, GPS, WiFi and weather updates.

In confirming Samsung's effort, Hee declined to provide details on when the watch might be released, what features it would have or its pricing.