Although smartwatches and augmented reality glasses have appeared to be a promising category, new players are coming.
Wearables have been appearing on the market in many different forms, with several devices coming in the form of smartwatches, as well as smart clothing, headsets, and other types that can be attached to the body in some way.
Some predictions, however, are now starting to say that wearable technology worn on the ear will be the next wave.
According to the IDC Asia Pacific associate vice president for big data, analytics, and software, Craig Stires, “There’s some interesting information you can capture through the ear. We’ve been looking at things like wrist wearables, but the ear can capture things like oxygen levels, electrocardiograms, and body temperature.” This has opened up the opportunity to develop wearable technology that would be able to perform at a very impressive level. It would also mean that an entirely new sub-category of these devices would open up.
It has been predicted that hearable technology wearables could be worth $5 billion by 2018.
That forecast was made by the Wifore Consulting chief technology officer and founder, Nick Nunn. The prediction of this U.K. firm would mean that the hearable category of wearable technology would be worth the same amount as the entire industry of these devices at its present level.
Fans of wearable tech enjoy the ability to use these devices in a kind of “synced lifestyle”, where their devices integrate perfectly into their daily life. According to the PSFK research firm’s “Future of Wearable Tech” report, which was issued in 2014, that mentality has helped in the development of devices that can be worn on just about every body part. Moreover, it has also brought the worlds of technology and fashion into the same environment.
However, Hunn has stated that there is one primary factor which may be overlooked by brands offering wearables, so far. That is that “Sound drives the bulk of our technology use.” Moreover, the only type of wearable technology that has already fully gained social acceptance and mainstream use is earbuds. As a result, he feels that it is those devices that will soon be experiencing a “revolution in capability”.
According to a BuzzCity report, marketing over smartphones and tablets is on the edge of exploding.
According to the results of a recent forecast released by BuzzCity, Malaysia looks as though it will be an exceptionally promising marketplace when it comes to mobile advertising, as smartphone penetration continues its impressive growth, and as a rising number of marketers tweak their budgets to place a greater focus on this channel.
The prediction suggested that traditional websites will continue their importance, but mobile will be increasing.
Dr. K.F. Lai, the chief executive officer and founder of BuzzCity stated that companies will be boosting their digital presence through the use of traditional websites, as well as through mobile advertising, smartphone optimized websites, and native apps. He added that “Advertisers are also adjusting budgets to spend more online – particularly on mobile.” According to Lai, 82 percent of web users in Malaysia are already using their smartphones to watch online videos, and they predict that advertisers will seek to take advantage of this attention.
For that reason, mobile advertising for the Malaysian market will likely consist greatly of video ads.
This will likely be especially true in the form of web series mobile video ads. Lai explained that in the Malaysian marketplace, there is a notable gap between online ad spending and online media consumption. He said that “Given this point, our job is to continue to raise awareness and help educate marketers and advertisers about the huge digital opportunity and how they can maximize their budget in this space in a variety of ways.”
He sees the greatest growth as being in mobile marketing, which was driven by the shifting trends in online commerce within Malaysia. He pointed out that in the second quarter, his company released their global online shopping survey results. That research was conducted in collaboration with the MMA (Mobile Marketing Association). Malaysia is following trends toward mobile ads, as Is the case in the rest of the world, and this is altering the way that consumers are choosing to shop.
Mobile advertising has a very large opportunity in Malaysia, where 78 percent of the people surveyed said that they were already shopping online. Among those, almost half were using their smartphones or tablets to buy products and services.
