Industry Report Store Blogs: Wearable Tech Devices in 2014: The Rise of the Smartwatch

The 2014 International CES event, an annual global consumer electronics and technology tradeshow, took place in Las Vegas last week. It featured innovative technology that is changing the shape of our future, quite literally, featuring curved LED screens, VR goggles, smartwatches and 3D printing. The event harnessed the power of social media as much as possible, utilising the hashtag #CES2014 to track the buzz generated by the show around the world. Its top trending phrase was ‘wearable tech’ which is undoubtedly going to be a massive trend for 2014, as well as the future of the technology market. Google Glasses and Sony’s SmartWig are both heavily talked about wearable tech currently in the pipeline but a product which featured prominently at CES was smartwatches.

It seems like the logical step, and the most marketable, wearable tech device, but there has been criticism about the practicality of a smartwatch, and questions about its usability. It seems as if companies have been scrambling over themselves trying to stay ahead of the curve by being the first to release a full-functioning smartwatch, which has resulted in poorly designed, sub-par pieces of technology. Currently smartwatches, like those showcased at CES, are contingent on the use of a smartphone. The fact that smartwatches are not presently autonomous appears to be the biggest issue with consumers, because there seems little point to it if it relies on a smartphone to work. Smartwatches with their own micro-sim are already being discussed, but besides these customer qualms, there’s been hugely positive feedback on the smartwatches showcased at CES.

One hot favourite is the Pebble Smartwatch, which gained its popularity after crowd source funding from Kickstarter. The

company announced at CES that they are releasing a steel encased version at the end of this month, as well as their own Pebble app store, whereas previously users had to go through third-parties to download their apps. There is no denying that there are still issues, but the concept and product potential is incredibly impressive. The Pebble Smartwatch features include weather, traffic and news updates, notifications from social media apps, games, utilities, remotes to control your central heating or lock your car door and with its 5ATM waterproof status it is also being marketed as a fitness aid to help users track their goals whatever the weather. Their sleek designs, with e-Paper display are keeping them in pole position at the moment, but with huge corporations such as Apple and Google leaking hints about their versions of smartwatches, this emerging market is clearly going to be a competitive landscape as we continue into 2014.

It’s vital for any business wishing to learn more about the wearable tech market to invest in business intelligence, to keep up with competitors and recognise areas for potential growth in the industry. The Industry Report Store has just released an extremely valuable report from Technavio featuring an in-depth market analysis for smartwatches in the current climate, and in coming years. As well as input from industry experts, this report contains details about majority vendors including Apple, Samsung, Sony, Qualcomm and Pebble Technology.

If you would like to request some sample pages for this report please don’t hesitate to contact us, or see our website for more information: The Global Smartwatches Market 2014-2018

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