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Samsung has been slowly making moves in a continuing competition to remain one of the top smart device manufacturers in the market. The electronics giant has been in talks with sports apparel company Under Armour in what may be a bid to rival the growing Apple and Nike partnership.

In a report from Yonhap News, the son of Samsung chairman Le Kun Hee, Lee Jae Yong, met with Under Armour CEO Kelvin Plank earlier in the month. Allegedly, the talks were to discuss ways to seize part of the wearable device and sports equipment market that Apple and Nike threaten to dominate. Although Samsung has gotten the jump on Apple with its surging Galaxy Gear device line, the Apple brand strength coupled with Nike’s sportswear innovation could prove to be a worthy foe.

From Yonhap News:

While Apple is yet to release its first wearable smart device, Samsung jumped into the new market since September last year with the Galaxy Gear smartwatch that worked on Google Inc.’s Android platform.

This year, it rolled out the Galaxy Gear Fit, which works on real-time operating system, as well as the Tizen-powered Samsung Gear 2 and Gear Neo. Last month, it also debuted the Samsung Gear Live, the first member of lineup that works under U.S.-based Google Inc.’s Android Wear platform.

Samsung is estimated to have took up 71 percent of the global wearable market in the first quarter of this year by shipping some 500,000 units. The company’s dominance, however, is expected to be threatened by Apple’s first full-fledged wearable device set to be launched in October this year.

In 2012, Nike released the FuelBand wearable device which was tailored to work with Apple products. The company has shifted its focus in recent times to prepare for the release of the upcoming iWatch device this fall.

Photo: Under Armour/Elements Concrete