Samsung's Galaxy Watch 4 announcement may come sooner than expected. Samsung typically unveils its smartwatch at an Unpacked event at the end of the summer, but a keynote at the scheduled Mobile World Conference suggests that a new Galaxy wearable may be on the way by the end of the month.

On June 28, the first day of MWC, Samsung will host a keynote titled "Galaxy Ecosystem / New Watch Experience / Mobile Security" SamMobile found an online-only event on the MWC agenda

According to the keynote description, Samsung is devoting time to "reimagining the smartwatch and creating new opportunities for both developers and consumers."

This could mean that Samsung plans to announce the Galaxy Watch 4 and/or Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 Active before announcing its next smartphone lineup. Previous rumors have indicated that Samsung is developing two smartwatch versions this year: first, a lifestyle-focused successor to the Samsung Galaxy Watch 3, and second, a fitness-focused successor to the Samsung Galaxy Watch Active 2.

Of course, it is possible that only one or the other will be announced. It is also possible that neither will be announced, at least during MWC.

Just as watchOS 8 was unveiled at Apple's WWDC but not Apple Watch 7, it is possible that the keynote will feature software rather than hardware. Samsung may spotlight its new partnership with Google on Wear OS. The two companies have already confirmed that the upcoming Galaxy Watch will run a refreshed Wear OS with Tizen folded in and borrowing some of Fitbit's fitness tracking capabilities.

So far, from what we've heard about the new Wear OS, the platform is poised to turn the tide of the controversial platform; the integration with Tizen will bring future Galaxy Watch users into Google's wearable software and should be a major boost as well as draw future Galaxy Watch users into Google's wearable software.

There are questions about how Google and Samsung will come to terms with developers and whether all apps currently available in the Tizen store will also appear in the Wear OS store. Google Fit vs. Samsung Health, Google Assistant versus Bixby would also require compromises.

Perhaps the June 28 keynote will provide some answers. There may also be some clarity on how Samsung plans to support existing Galaxy Watch models that will not be upgraded to Wear OS. Samsung has already stated that it will provide software updates for at least three years, but customers should be interested in how the experience will be different.

Samsung's MWC keynote will take place on June 28 at 10:15am PT / 1:15pm ET / 6:15pm BST / 7:15pm CET.