Tag: wearable tech

Consumers want wearable technology, but at a lower price

| October 31, 2014

Recent research has revealed that while wearables are drawing interest, most won’t pay over $300 for them.

It is becoming increasingly difficult to find an electronics and mobile devices maker that has not come up with its own version of wearable technology, but while recent studies have shown that many consumers are very interested in this tech, the price tag is creating a barrier to adoption.

Wearables are coming out in the form of everything from smartwatches to clothing, glasses, jewelry, and more.

Despite the fact that there are many different offerings within the wearable technology category, it is clearly an industry that remains in its infancy as companies have not yet come up with the strategy that will ensure that the majority consumers will be willing to buy these devices and like them enough that they will be willing to replace them as new generations of wearables are released. A recent PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) study has provided considerable insight into this struggle.

The research asked 1,000 consumers in the United States about their opinions with regards to wearable technology.

Wearable Technology for lower costWhat it showed was that many Americans do already have one of these devices, at least in some form, and that they have high hopes with regards to their benefits. The data showed that around one in five people in the U.S. currently has some type of wearable technology device, such as a wrist band or a digital pedometer that will connect with their computers or smartphones.

That said, a surprising 56 percent of the people who took part in the PwC study also felt that these mobile gadgets (more specifically, those that allow for bio-feedback such as fitness trackers, sleep trackers, and those that monitor heart rate) will help a person to boost his or her life expectancy by a decade. Equally, just under 42 percent of the participants believed that wearables could help an individual to boost his or her athletic ability and overall fitness level.

That said, while 21 percent of the participants actually own some form of wearable technology device, only 10 percent of the total respondents actually use their gadget on a daily basis. Moreover, there is a price limit to the amount that they would spend. Only 5 percent said that they would be willing to pay $300 for a device in this category, while even fewer – 4 percent – said that they would be willing to pay $500. Only time will reveal whether or not the $349 price tag of the Apple Watch will make that product cost prohibitive.

Wearable technology device unveiled by Lenovo

| October 30, 2014

The company has now jumped into the wearables market with its own version of a smartband gadget.

Lenovo has now joined the latest entrants into the wearable technology market, as it has now unveiled its  through a quiet addition of the device to its official website.

The Chinese company has clearly taken the popular focus of health and fitness for its new wearables.

The description on the official website says that this wearable technology will help a wearer to be able to track his or her sleep, daily exercise and heart rate. At the same time, it provides the user the opportunity to customize the notifications that he or she receives through the device in order “to improve both work and life efficiency and automatically log in on a PC without entering a password.”

Clearly, there is more than one component to this wearable technology and they have stepped beyond mhealth.

The fitness component of these wearables allows a wearer to be able to track his or her daily calories burned, distance travelled, and the number of steps that have been taken. At the same time, though, it can provide the owner with notifications of the receipt of texts, calls, and appointment reminders. The device also has a “smart” feature, that gives users the ability to automatically unlock their PC when they are within a certain proximity range.

The weareables have yet to be released, but a filing to the FCC was made earlier in October and was spotted online. That said, Lenovo has yet to actually release any of the specific details about the product launch, including where the smartband will be sold, in what regions it will be available, at what its price will be sold, or when the exact release date will be.

This device came as a surprise to some, as many expected that Lenovo would be entering into the wearable technology category with a different type of product, altogether. This is because the company had unveiled a smart glasses product back in July, which would place it in a wearables category that would rival Google Glass as opposed to wrist-worn gadgets.