(Blog): The product upgrade cycle for smartphone and tablet technology is moving at a glacial pace compared to wearable tech, yet just 9% of US consumers currently own a smart watch.
While such low adoption figures are fairly common in other wearable tech product segments, wrist-born wearables, in particular, must improve in a number of areas, both obvious and not so obvious, before they can move up the adoption curve.
Obvious areas for improvement include battery life, processing power, interoperability and form factor. The not-so-obvious areas aren’t as well defined, but will come into focus throughout 2015 as wearable suppliers strive to separate from the pack. Competing on price is one way to do this; creating innovative new products is another. But an overarching demand for meaningful and differentiated devices is what really ties the knot.
Consider:
- Relocating the watch face. Wearables’ primary function – consuming content, creating content, supplementing or supplanting the smartphone – is still up for debate. Central to this is whether consumers want a watch that does more or a small smartphone that does less. Serving both ends of this spectrum becomes more likely if smartwatches focus on becoming an additional channel for access to information versus a device defined by its ability to tell time. Interacting with a touch-sensitive display in a traditional watch form factor is anything but natural. By default, the placement of the display and our anatomical nature predisposes unintended snooping when notifications arrive. Why not instead locate the display so that it sits on the inside portion of a user’s wrist (e.g., like an NFL quarterback’s play list)?
Pebble, which recently launched a rocket ship campaign on Kickstarter for its upcoming Pebble Time smartwatch, is headed in this direction. The Palo Alto, California-based startup plans to expand the functionality of Pebble Time and Pebble Time Steel by allowing developers to create what it calls ‘smartstraps,’ This is just one example of a seemingly minor design adjustment that could measurably improve ease of use, wearability and overall device uptake – more are sure to follow. (Pebble says its smartstrap APIs will be available publicly several months after Pebble Time starts shipping; they are not currently available in the developer preview SDK.)
- Focusing on security. Advances in cellular, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and other connectivity options carry a lot of weight when it comes to wearables. Consequently, most require a smartphone to fully function. More recently, however, Android Wear (and soon Apple Watch) devices are emphasising onboard storage as an option to perform select, offline functions – at least until the rumored rollout of Wi-Fi support for Android Wear gets going. Music streaming (e.g., to headphones or speakers via Bluetooth) is probably the most visible example of this at present, but what if onboard storage was instead used to manage, maintain and delegate sensitive information? Off-network wearable devices – those without embedded cellular connectivity, which, today are the majority – then become an asset. The ‘wearable’ aspect simply invites additional assurances around secure data storage/transfer, as well as opportunities around identification/authentication, and unlike smartphones, tablets, PCs, thumb drives, etc., wearables are less likely to get left behind.
Differentiation comes in many forms, and it’s important that hardware, software and service providers evaluate their go-to-market options to win market share. But whether breaking the mold on devices, developing new business models and use cases, or even leveraging strategic partners to improve discoverability (and therefore end-user value) for other products/services, wearable tech stakeholders must also consider how their vision for wearables aligns with the organisation, its operational processes and its capital commitments/allocations. Prioritising time to market is generally a decent place to start, but even a well-timed release of an also-ran wearable product won’t mean much in the long run.
Written by: Ryan Martin
Ryan Martin is an analyst on 451 Research’s Mobility Team, which was established in July 2014 with the integration of Yankee Group. His research covers machine-to-machine (M2M) and emerging mobile technologies, wearable tech, connected cars, and the Internet of Things (IoT). Prior to joining Yankee Group, Martin served as a consultant at Mobile Future Institute, a US-based think tank focused on business strategies and marketing tactics for the mobile ecosystem. Before Mobile Future Institute, he held advisory, consultative and managerial positions at a number of early- to late-stage startups. Martin holds degrees in Economics and Political Science, with an additional concentration in Global Studies, from the University of Vermont and an MBA from the University of New Hampshire.
