Tag: wearable tech

A new forecast from IDC has predicted that smartwatches, fitness trackers and other wearables are rising fast.

This year, the International Data Corporation (IDC) reported a massive surge in the wearable technology market, which it said saw growth of 300 percent due to the sale of products such as the Fitbit Surge, Apple Watch and Pebble Time.

The IDC has released a report saying that by the end of 2016, worldwide shipments will hit 111.1 million.

That will mean that wearable technology will have seen an increase of 44 percent over the figure from 2015. That said, by the year 2019, shipments of wearables will have broken through the 214.6 million mark. According to the wearables team research manager at IDC, Ramon Llamas, “In a short amount of time, smartwatches have evolved from being extensions of the smartphone to wearable computers capable of communications, notifications, applications, and numerous other functionalities.”

It was also pointed out that wearable technology devices are experiencing a rapid evolution.

Llamas went on to point out that just because they’re starting to sell and they will be seeing rapid growth over coming years, it doesn’t mean that the smartwatches we currently know will be the ones that actually take off over the next few years. He explained that “The smartwatch we have today will look nothing like the smartwatch we will see in the future.”

He also underscored the forecast that the details of these devices will be quite different from what we currently see. The health sensors, cellular connectivity and even the wearables app market – which is already rapidly on the grow – will be ready to provide serious game changing evolutions in this market. Llamas feels that it will be in those areas that the gadgets will start to define themselves as having value and will become appealing to consumers.

While many of its predictions aligned well with other reports that have been issued by various prediction firms, the IDC report was somewhat different in that it has said that watchOS and Android Wear will be grabbing the top two spots (respectively). That said, it also stated that Tizen from Samsung will carve out an important segment of the market over the next four years, as well, to the point that it might swipe away some of the share that would otherwise have belonged to Android Wear.

The designer company will now be producing 1,200 to 2,000 of its Carrera Connected per week.

As Tag Heuer faces a rising demand for its wearable technology from retailers, the designer brand has chosen to boost the production of its Carrera Connected smartwatch device by a considerable amount.

The Swiss watchmaker will now be increasing the rate of wearables production to 1,200 to 2,000 weekly units.

This wearable technology is designed to be a highly attractive and very chic version of an Android Wear smartwatch. According to the CEO of the company, Jean Claude Biver, Tag Heuer will also be stopping all its online sales of this device until around May or June 2016 in order to give the company the opportunity to catch up with the tremendous demand from retailers selling in-store.

This device represents the first entry of a luxury watch manufacturer into wearable technology.

Biver brought Tag Heuer into this category with a massive amount of popularity, at just the time when people were starting to have genuine doubts as to whether or not there would ever be a luxury smartwatch based on the Android Wear operating system.

Among the features that make the Carrera wearables stand out in this category include the titanium construction, as well as the trans-reflective display. The appearance of the device is quite chic, with an elegance that takes it a full step above most of the other smartwatches that are currently available.

Biver has since stated that Tag Heuer intends to continue producing Connected wearable technology devices and that new models will likely become available as soon as late 2016 or early 2017. This, in response to the large and growing interest that consumers have already shown in high end smartwatches. Many have speculated that the next models of the devices that the designer will issue will probably feature gold components as well as the possibility of the inclusion of diamonds.

According to Biver, “Considering the success of this single and unique watch, we will develop a collection made out of different varieties, executions and materials at the end of next year or beginning of 2017.”