Tag: wearable technology

The Apple Watch was seen by many as the hope for the wearables sector’s future, but will it be enough?

There was a massive amount of hype before the release of the Apple Watch not only because it would be the next device from the iPhone maker, but also because many people saw the company’s entry into the market as the future of the wearable technology sector.

Now, the device has been out for a while and predictions have been diverging regarding its influence.

It is certain that the sales of those devices have been strong, and it has drawn wearable technology into the spotlight so that even people who had never heard of a smartwatch before have frequently heard of one, now. But at the same time, the majority of people still haven’t actually seen these wearables in real life. Aside from fitness trackers, most people haven’t actually experienced the use of smartwatches or smartglasses, nor have they seen them on anyone else. So analysts have been coming up with their predictions about the growth of the sector, and it seems that no two are quite alike.

The wearable technology sector is still learning about what consumers actually want from these devices.

Among the primary complaints that had arisen about smartwatches – well before the release of the Apple Watch – was that many of them were very chunky and were not very appealing. Very few people were interested in wearing something that made them look like an extra in a made for TV sci-fi movie.

The offerings have smoothed out a little bit, particularly as many wearables companies have partnered up with fashion designers in order to help to make sure that consumers would feel that the devices that they had to be offer would be something that would be worth wearing. However, there have been several other issues in terms of performance that have arisen and those still have yet to be addressed.

For instance, many consumers feel that the battery life of wearables is too short. The majority of devices that are currently being sold have an average one day battery life. While it may be convenient to plug in a smartphone overnight in order to recharge it, this becomes inconvenient for smartwatch wearers as their gadgets often involve features that track their sleep.

If they have to take the wearable technology devices off, then they lose the ability to benefit from that feature. This could lead to an albeit temporary trend of using the devices overnight, but recharging them during the daytime with portable battery chargers that can be plugged in and slipped into a pocket.

An International Data Corporation (IDC) report has identified the top shipper of wearables during the quarter.

The IDC has now released its “Worldwide Quarterly Wearable Device Tracker” report, which identified the number of wearable technology devices that were shipped in Q1 of this year, saying that there were 11.4 million of these gadgets.

This marks a tremendous raise over the wearables from the same quarter last year, which was 3.8 million.

That represents a tremendous growth of 200 percent when it comes to the shipments of wearable technology. Moreover, the report also indicated that this growth in the industry appears to be relatively steady. Worldwide Mobile Device Trackers senior research analyst, Jitesh Ubrani, explained that “As with any young market, price erosion has been quite drastic. We now see over 40% of the devices priced under $100, and that’s one reason why the top 5 vendors have been able to grow their dominance from two thirds of the market in the first quarter of last year to three quarters this quarter.”

That said, wearable technology’s growth does not appear to be dependent on dropping prices.

The entrance of Apple with its Watch that is priced at a higher level has shown that there is some consumer interest in paying more in order to receive a product from a premium brand or one that is currently in the spotlight. What will be interesting is whether or not that consumer interest actually continues or if this represents a novelty that will wear off after a period of time.

The IDC report also pointed out that it was Fitbit that took the top spot in terms of its share of the wearable tech market. The data in the report indicated that the company was holding onto a hefty 34.2 percent of the total global wearables market.

During the first quarter of this year, Fitbit, alone, shipped 3.9 million of its devices. In second place was Xiaomi, which shipped a strong but notably lower 2.8 million units. Garmin and Samsung took the third and fourth spots on the list, respectively. The fifth place was grabbed onto by Jawbone.