There are now tons of options on the market and despite tech company hopes, they’re not taking off.
As the holiday shopping season truly got underway last year, many companies predicted the launch of powerful wearable technology trends. Firms were unveiling devices left, right and center to ensure they had the chance to become the next big thing.
That time brought the entrance of the Apple Watch and Samsung Gear S2, major wearable tech players.
Lenovo, LG and Huawei all stepped in with Google to use Android Wear on their offerings. Each company wanted to add their own device to the wearable technology trends. However, a year later and well into the next holiday shopping season, it’s clear that consumers aren’t impressed. At least, they’re not as impressed as tech firms thought they would be. They’re certainly not ready to pay the hefty price tags for the devices.
Many in the industry feel that wearable technology trends won’t pick up until smartwatches become more convincing.
According to IDC senior research analyst Jitesh Ubrani, wearable technology companies have yet to give consumers a reason to want to buy. “A lot of what these devices can do, they’re essentially just mimicking the phone.”
As most people already have other mobile devices and certainly have a smartphone, there is little motivation to buy a smartwatch. Currently, people bring their smartphones everywhere they go. As the mobile devices are nearly always in a hand or a pocket, they are not considered inconvenient to use. Therefore, asking people to drop another few hundred dollars after already having spent several hundred on the phone seems too much for many consumers.
These unfortunate wearable technology trends have not been without their casualties. Pebble, for example, announced last week that they were shutting down. That company had been among the first smartwatch companies. It had a loyal following and was able to hold its own against the competition for quite some time. Now, faced with the Apple Watch and offerings from many other giants, even Pebble will be dissolving and selling its software to Fitbit; the leader of the fitness tracker scene.
Wallaby unveiled its third app for wearable devices.
The mobile and online credit card optimization solution is the first to launch a mobile wallet app for the Samsung Gear 2 smartwatch, which provides users with the ability to make financial decisions in real time.
Wallaby helps consumers select the best credit card for every transaction.
The company is known for assisting consumers in choosing the credit card that is the most idea for each of their transactions to help them earn the most rewards and to save the most money. The app gives users the ability to view their credit card utilization, balances and balance limit, as well as obtain suggestions on which card is the most practical for each shopping experience.
In addition to having offerings for Android and iOS, currently, Wallaby has an app for the wearables Google Glass and Pebble. One of its goals is to appeal to early adopters of wearable technology, so that it can improve its current wearable app formula and make it more successful and appealing for other major companies when they enter the wearables market.
In an interview with Mashable, Matthew Goldman, the CEO and founder of Wallaby said that “We’ve chosen to be involved in wearables because we think that we’re providing the kind of apps people want.” He added that “A lot of people focus on fitness and health but financial health is an important factor of everyone’s everyday life.”
Goldman stated that Wallaby’s has already learned more about what users want from the company’s existing wearable applications. Their apps have helped them understand what users want to see on the tiny screens of their devices.
The Samsung Gear 2 smartwatch is believed to be the perfect wearable platform for the Wallaby app.
Goldman said of the Samsung Gear that it is a “compelling device with an excellent interface” and that it is a platform well suited to providing users financial information that will help them avoid fees and save money.
According to the company’s press release, Consumers who use the Wallaby app on their smartwatch will receive unbiased recommendations that are based on the company’s industry leading database and algorithms of “credit card promotions and rewards intelligence.”
