Category: Technology News

This latest wearable technology from the company will cost £180 when it arrives in November 2014.

Consumers in the United Kingdom who have been waiting for details regarding the release of the Sony SmartWatch 3 now have something to look forward to, as it has been revealed that it will arrive in the country in November and will cost £180.

The device is based on the Android Wear operating system from Google and has a 1.6 inch display.

The Sony SmartWatch 3 will become available at the Google Play store. The company pointed out that it is important to remember that “timings and availability will vary by market/operator, and some regional operator & market exceptions will apply.” For example, Clove, a retailer, had first announced that it would have the wearables on October 23, but has since said that they will not have the Black and Lime versions until early in November. Moreover, the Metal models will not be on the shelves until the middle of the month.

Though the price of the Sony SmartWatch 3 starts at £180, the precise cost will depend on the model.

For example, the preorder price at Clove was listed at exactly that price, but that retailer is also showing that the preorder price of the metal version of the wearable technology will be considerably higher, reaching £215.

The various models that will be available in this smartwatch include the Classic, which will come in black, and the Sport, which will be lime colored. They are IP68 certified to be waterproof and dust proof. They will feature a transflective TFT LCD display that will be 1.6 inches and will feature a resolution of 320 by 320. The straps are silicon rubber, and the rear panel is stainless steel. A pink or white replacement strap can also be purchased for this device.

The Sony SmartWatch 3 is 38 grams and the device, itself is 36 mm by 10 mm by 51 mm. It will have 512 MB of RAM, a 1.2 GHz ARM A7 quad core processor, and will have 4 GB of storage, supporting NFC, GPS and Bluetooth 4.0 LE.

The results of a recent study show that people expect wallet apps to become commonplace by 2017 to 2019.

Although there have been doubts with regards to the mainstream use of mobile payments in the United States due to the “slow” rate of adoption by merchants and consumers, a recent study shows that shoppers do feel that the regular use of these digital transactions is not long off. A survey was conducted by Mobile Commerce Press which revealed that the majority of people expect that mobile wallets will be as mainstream as plastic credit cards at some time between 2017 and 2019.

Changes in methods of payment away from cash have a long tradition of slow uptake.

Most people today are very comfortable and, overall, are quite satisfied by the experience that they receive through the use of credit cards at the checkout counter. But this was not always the way. Plastic credit cards were actually first invented in the 1920s. They didn’t become popular until the 1950s. When considering that three decade gap, the expectation that mobile payments will take between 5 and 10 years to become is not necessarily as lengthy as it might seem.

As more mobile wallets are unveiled by large players, such as Google, telecom companies, and Apple, consumers are becoming more aware of what they have to offer, and the types of benefits that they could enjoy.

According to the editor of Mobile Commerce Press, Loreen Worden, “Mobile payments would be one more step away from the reality of how much we spend,” and went on to say that “in fact mobile payments would be a boon for credit cards.”

Mobile payments will be convenient for consumers and could be tremendously beneficial to credit card companies.

Worden stated that she feels that the credit card industry should be pushing mobile wallets more than they actually are due to the spectrum of advantages it has to offer them. The lack of plastic card manufacturing and distribution, on its own, has great cost saving potential, however, there is a psychological element that Worden feels should not be overlooked.

She pointed out that as is the case with other cashless forms of spending, there is a psychological detachment between spending and the understanding of how much money is actually being spent. When cash is used, the consumer can watch the amount of money reducing in his or her wallet. However, with credit cards and mobile payments, a mental record needs to be kept. The amount of total available funds shrinks, but not right before the spender’s eyes. This is exactly the type of effect that leads to the largest profits for credit card companies.

Key findings from the Mobile Commerce Press survey:

• 30.3 percent of participants feel that mobile payments will be mainstream by 2017 to 2019.
• 20.5 percent think that they will be commonplace by 2015.
• 18.9 percent feel that 2016 will be the year of mobile wallets.
• 11.5 percent said that by 2017, they would be commonplace in the US but that the rest of the world will be mainstream by 2015.
• 11.5 percent said that 2020 will be the year in which the whole world considers these transactions to be mainstream.
• 5.7 percent felt that smartphones would never become a typical form of payment, and that credit cards will always rule.

Mobile Commerce Press is a Los Angeles, California based news magazine that was established online in 2012. Its writing team regularly posts articles that share the very latest in cutting edge mobile technology, m-commerce, mobile payments and wallets, marketing, and other important trends relating to smartphones, tablets, and wearable technology devices.