Tag: wearable tech

This market is rapidly becoming very popular and adoption is increasing quite swiftly.

Data that has recently been released by YouGov has shown that in Great Britain, there is a rapid adoption of personal tech among consumers, and these gadgets include wearable technology.

One in ten people, says the data, will be using wearables as this category of the market takes off.

At the moment, YouGov reports that six percent of the population of Great Britain owns some kind of wearable technology device. This represents approximately 2.8 million people. The types of devices that fall within this category include activity trackers, fitness bands, and smartwatches. That said, while the numbers are already strikingly high when considering that this category is still practically within its infancy, the firm expects that those figures will double to 13 percent of the population, or 6.1 million people, before the close of next year.

The next spike in wearable technology adoption is expected when the Apple Watch goes up for sale.

Apple’s entry into the wearables market is predicted to be a considerable driver for adoption rates, though the size of the impact won’t be seen until it actually happens at the start of next year. Ahead of that time, it will be the holiday shopping season that will make the biggest contribution to the figures.

The figures from a survey conducted by YouGov show that by the end of this year, one in ten people, which means about 4.7 million individuals, will own some form of wearable technology device.

The challenge that developers and manufacturers will now be facing will be in attempting to encourage those who own the wearables to actually continue to using them. At the moment, the majority of the gadgets that have already been purchased are focused on fitness. However, 37 percent of the people who were surveyed said that they have it just so that they will be able to keep up with the latest in technology.

While this may look good in sales figures, it also shows that companies still have a certain distance to travel before wearable technology will have been worked into the typical lifestyle of the majority of consumers.

A new kinds of tech for wearables is being developed that feels just like skin and that adheres like a patch.

As companies rush to try to bring new wearable technology to the market, there has been considerable focus on coming up with new and innovative ways to make options small, convenient, and unique from everything else that is out there.

When it comes to the direction that wearables are taking, the industry feels very certain about one thing.

The issue about which the wearable technology industry feels the most confident is that wearables are, indeed, the next era within the computing world. However, along with that certainty comes with a very important uncertainty, which is that the industry has yet to come up with a design and function that will define the way that these mobile devices are worn and used.

At the moment, the majority of major manufacturers are angling wearable technology toward smartwatches.

This has, for example, been the case with Samsung and Apple – with the latter’s entry being only very recent, in a device that will become available for sale early next year – which have chosen smartwatches to be their primary focus in wearables. Google, on the other hand, has created an operating system for smartwatches – Android Wear – but has also chosen augmented reality glasses, that is, a type of headset worn on the face.

Three are also a large number of companies that are starting to think that smart clothing will be the next big thing. That said, there is a tremendous number of startups that are popping up and that are each taking their own unique direction on how wearables will come to be. Among them is a new form that could adhere a chip directly to the skin in the same way as a temporary tattoo or an adhesive bandage currently sticks in place.

This type of wearable technology is already in development and is extremely thin, flexible, stretchable, and can be made to be clear (or close to the color of the wearer’s skin) or could feature a unique design that would stand out. An example of that type of tech is being tested out in Cambridge, Massachusetts, by a company called MC10. Their attachable computers currently look like small, rectangular stickers that include a tiny battery, a wireless antenna, as well as sensors such as for heart rate and temperature.