Tag: wearable technology trends

Wearable technology trend is growing fast in Israel

| June 12, 2014

These devices are becoming very popular in the country but so is their development.

A leading tech evangelist in the United States, Robert Scoble, has announced that he feels that Israel will become an important driving force when it comes to the development and shipment of wearable technology in the not too distant future.

He expressed that he feels that we will soon all be donning wearables and many will come from Israel.

Scoble stated that “I think a lot of wearables will come out of Israel”. From the looks of the way that things have been moving, he may be completely right, particularly in terms of the overall adoption of the devices. Wearable technology was virtually unheard of only a couple of years ago, and now it feels as though a new type of device is being launched with each passing week. Everything from smartwatches that can take pictures and receive text messages to fitness bands, and even clothing embedded with sensors that can provide biofeedback and eyeglasses that allow the wearer to surf the web is now available on today’s tech shelves. There are even baby diapers and dog collars already out.

If Scoble is right, as the next waves of wearable technology are released, they will include Israeli innovations.

Wearable Technology - IsraelScoble had been in Israel last month as he attended many different events surrounding this first year of the WearableTech Conference, which took place in Tel Aviv. There, participants from a number of different countries looked into the ways in which Israel would be capable of contributing to the wearables sector. What they found was quite promising.

He pointed out that there is already an infrastructure in place for the expansion of wearables and there are already a number of companies that conduct similar types of research, development, and other related activities within the country. Moreover as Israel also holds a considerable amount of expertise in the area of inkjet printing, the potential for transistors to be sprayed onto virtually anything has also been mentioned.

The Orcam smart glasses have been created there for individuals who are visually impaired, and Intel recently purchased Omek gesture recognition software for $40 million. Clearly, Israel is providing a source of many different elements that can make up a complete wearable technology package.

Wearable technology may go out as fast as it came in

| May 30, 2014

A research firm is now forecasting that the werarables market could have gone out of fashion by 2016.

According to the predictions that have been produced by a research firm regarding the wearable technology market, those mobile devices may already be edging toward the crest of a wave that could soon come crashing down.

The market is estimated to be made up of as many as 48 million device shipments, at the moment.

These wearable technology devices include everything from smatwatches to head mounted displays to fitness trackers, and even patches that adhere directly to the skin, among others. At the moment, many of them – particularly in the activity tracking category – are flying off the store shelves nearly as quickly as they can be placed there. However, if things go as has been predicted to NPD DisplaySearch, the hype will reach its maximum by the end of 2014, and it will only decline from there.

In fact, the wearable technology predictions are dramatic enough to say that the demand will be all but wiped out.

Is wearable technology a fadThe NPD DisplaySearch report said that the actual hype that these wearables are generating has already started to fade. It stated that unless the prices fall considerably or there is a wearable device that is launched that offers the ability to become an essential tech gadget comparable to the role currently played by the smartphone, then there is a very real risk that smartglasses and smartwatches will be seen as nothing more than a fashion fad and they will be gone as quickly as they arrived.

According to the NPD DisplaySearch director of European TV research, Paul Gray, “We expect that the dynamics of the wearables market will be similar to DVD, LCD TV, smartphones, and other digital consumer markets with commoditised hardware.” He also added that prices and margins will fall when the market begins to include more from Samsung, LGE, “and other large, cost-efficient manufacturers.”

That said, the report also acknowledges that the actual evolution of wearable technology devices remains unknown, and there is still a great potential for one or several styles to be able to find the necessary consumer niche.