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.
The new Apple Watch activity app arrived with the latest updates to the WatchOS 3 operating system.
Shares of the company behind the Fitbit fitness tracker devices fell considerably this week. The drop in stock prices was the direct result of Apple’s new improvements to its wearable technology.
The Apple Watch plus has received several updates including a fitness app that presents notable competition.
The new Apple operating system, the WatchOS 3, was launched on Tuesday. That OS is meant to address the primary complaints customers have identified in the device. For instance, the new WatchOS 3 makes it possible for wearable technology apps to load more rapidly.
Customers were consistently complaining about slow load and launch times. The upgrade allows apps to load data in the device’s background. The Wall Street Journal reported that this makes the process notably faster. That said, it is now putting the pressure on the FitBit fitness tracker.
The Fitbit fitness tracker maintains a consistent leadership position in the wearable tech industry.
The company behind the Fitbit wearable technology devices is based in San Francisco. It offers a spectrum of different gadgets for monitoring daily activity levels, heart rates and even a wearer’s sleep patterns. In addition, users can employ the compatible app to record their tracked data and to share it.
That said, the new version of the Apple fitness app allows wearers to record and share their tracked data. When users share their tracked data, friends can then message them other through the app. Furthermore, Apple also launched an additional Breathe application on top of its fitness app for its wearables. The Breathe app is meant to provide fitness tracking for wearers in wheelchairs. It also has features geared toward relaxation.
Beyond that, the WatchOS 3 offers SOS. The SOS feature works when the wearer holds down the slide button for a certain length of time. That action automatically calls 911 and sends a notification to the wearer’s emergency contact list. It shares the wearer’s location, date of birth, medical information and allergies with emergency responders. These features go well beyond the offerings of the Fitbit fitness tracker. This helps to explain the downward shift in the stock prices.
