New Technological Trend: Fitness Tracker/Wearables
With wearable technology such as Apple’s Apple Watch or Fitbit gaining traction and recognition with people of all ages the adoption rate of these kinds of technology has been numerous. Watching the trends of new and improved versions of wearable technology such as the Fitbit Surge and the Fitbit Surge 2 being released it’s foretasted that in 2015 “1 in 5 Americans will own a wearable technology such as smart watch, activity tracker or smart glass,” according to a wireless technology consumer survey by onworld.com who surveyed 1,050 plus people. investing in these kind of companies is the best bet for the future. There’s a lot of potential for these new wearables and investing in them would be a smart financial decision but with so many choices in the market varying from a basic wristband without a face to the Apple Watch which borders on almost a wearable phone, how do these products compare? How are these products used? What else can these be used for?
As Bluetooth capabilities are becoming better and the span of products the utilize the connectivity is growing, we enter the realm of the product category of wearable technology more specifically fitness and health trackers that have been adapted from something you wear clipped to your waistband to interacting and engaging the user with a smart interface ranging from just a small screen on products such as the Fitbit Surge to smartwatches such as Apple’s Apple Watch. As technology evolves and changes with the consumer and profit driving the bottom line of companies, we have seen this technology begin as one thing and quickly escalate into a more appealing product that’s fashionable and offers all of the latest amenities that will quickly be replaced and/or updated in the next version to be released that fall but for now, the hype for this version is what’s in.
Diversified functionalities of Wearables
Since the invention of Bluetooth and wireless Internet technology to cell phones, consumers have seen a huge bom in products that use these connectivity portals to connect people to their electronic device in a variety of different manners from hands free calls to fitness trackers that track your activity and sleep. Initially beginning as Bluetooth headsets used primarily by people in the business world and pedometers that were predominately used by an older demographic who were trying to get more active in their later years. Pedometers were not a huge hit within the younger generations largely due to their large and clunky design but also because of their very basic functionality for about $30 or $40 which didn’t give tight budgeted teens the incentive to purchase one.
This wearable technology then began to transform into the early versions of today’s wrist popular look as well as the prototypes that have continued to change towards more fashionable wear. This began with multi-billion-dollar companies Nike and Apple creating the Nike + and they’re fitness tracker chip that one had to buy the specific shoes to put the chip in. Then connecting to your phone and using within a basic application, one could see just how active they were throughout their day and track things such as their running mileage. Fitbit also offered cheap little clip on trackers that looked more like they were trying to repackage the pedometer but again it easily popped off the waistband it was normally clipped to, no visual screen to interact with, and none of the extra features today’s trackers now come with as the new baseline.
Today, we use wearables for a whole variety of uses. We use them to pay for things, we use them to track sleep, to remind us to move, to let us read our text messages without taking out our phones, receive phone calls, notify us of texts and still counts steps. It’s a growing business but having peaked a year or two ago, there’s a lot of opportunity to expand what else this fashionable technology can go such as moving into the healthcare industry to help streamline people’s data as they move. If someone needs to go to the hospital, instead of having to see if their medical card is on them or calling the nearest of kin and stressing them out trying to figure out people’s records, a simple swipe of their bracelet would suffice. Being an item that carries people’s data that they input when they get it such as age, weight, height, and if the application can correctly incentivize, inputting their medical stuff such as allergies, ect. This could revolutionize the industry and save doctor’s the need to try to put off surgeries or emergencies because they need to talk to the patient about important information like allergies or have them understand and give vocal authorization of medication or treatment. Unfortunately since consumer demand isn’t really pushing companies to go that direction and not everyone has adopted this technology, the companies face not having as much of a network effect. So let’s look at what the companies are doing with their products now.
Wearable technology is changing healthcare marketing
Health is the biggest concern for everybody. People usually work out, control their diet, and take nutritions to take care of their body and health. I think it’s pretty smart for having an application about healthcare like fitness tracker as the breakthrough to promote this kind of new technology and make it easier to get accepted by people. Wearable tech can be used to track blood pressure, heart rate, the number of steps you took and the miles you ran, and other health indicator. Over sixty percent of people think the wearable tech can help them improve their health and monitor their body better, thirty percent of people think wearables can assist them in disease management. The benefits of healthy issue that wearables created are tremendous and revolutionary, and the marketing trend of its single attribute can be tremendous.
Comparing to other wearable devices, like Apple watch, Samsung gear. Fitbit is focusing on its contribution of fitness tracker in the area of health and wellness. The price range of Fitbit is from $60 to $250. The differences in price depend on the options and specific feature you want in that device. For example, the Fitbit Zip is the cheapest device which has the functions like record of steps, calories, and distance, and active minute. The most expensive product is Fitbit Surge which have all those features that fitness tracker can provide like sleeper tracker, text notification, GPS tracker and go on.
The primary function of Fitbit’s device is different in functionality from other devices. For Fitbit, its primary function is fitness and health tracker. On the other hand, Apple watch and Samsung gear does offer fitness tracking activities as well, but that is not their primary objective. And the price of those watch is higher than Fitbit’s. Fitbit is still leading in the market of fitness tracker, and the most of people would like to choose Fitbit is because its specialization and comparable price.
What exactly does a fitness tracker can do for our daily lives?
Fitness trackers can track your goals and your progress, psychologically encouraging you to walk more steps than you did yesterday; to run faster than you did yesterday; to sustain that peak heart rate for just a little longer for that intense interval training. Research shows that wearing a fitness trackers — even if it’s just a basic pedometer! — can increase a user’s activity levels by 30 percent! The customized data from your body can help you monitor your health and wellness more efficiently and easily.
If you want to lose some weight, the fitness tracker can also help you with that. As you’re busy trying to beat and maintain your personal records, you may not even notice the gains or losses you’re making in your weight goal. by seeing your activity levels, noticing whether you’re in the correct heart rate zone and comparing with your weight on the scale after a few weeks can determine whether or not you’re on the right track to your desired weight.
Fitness tracker also can easily determine the quality of of the sleep based on the movement during the night. It will record everything you said in the night, and I think it’s an interesting feature for people who don’t have good sleep to use, like me.
Many companies like Philips and Samsung, their department of research and development are putting their effort on innovation of medical-grade connected wearable technology. This aspect is to provide fully integrated, medical-grade wearable solutions that connect real-time data and analytics with tools and dashboards, giving clinicians actionable insights. Predictive algorithms enable early detection and intervention, helping providers to improve care while reducing costs.
Unlike fitness trackers and consumer wearables that we use in the usual, This is focused on creating medical-grade connected wearable devices that are specifically developed for clinical applications towards the goal of improving both the patient experience and clinical outcomes. We see the potential of connected wearable devices to include:1. Provide greater visibility of patient status to assist in care coordination. 2. Help reduce costly adverse events that lead to unplanned ICU transfers and readmissions. 3. Drive workflow more efficient. 4. Provide freedom of mobility, comfort and convenience for patients and peace of mind for caregivers and family members
But there are still Some reviews and articles from blog and word-of mouth against the functionalities of wearable fitness tracker can affect the marketing promotion and sales. Because fitness tracker is a new industry, and all the technologies are not as mature and precise as people expected. They technologically just provide the estimation of the data like the caloric consumption and the distance you walked. Some experts and people who use fitness tracker doubt the accuracy of the calculation and the method they use. For example, the criticism says there are too many factors can influence the measurement of how many calories you burn and expenditure for a day like genetics, hormones, fitness level, and heart rate. All these factors can make the measurement of calories different, and it can not be precisely be calculated by the single format. And people think these miscalculations may lead to error or further healthy issue. From a customer’s standpoint, these doubts and worries are inevitable and necessary, after all, fitness tracker is a strange and new technology to them. It’s always the most difficult part to convince people to buy or even try a new product, and people can be easily affected by some negative perspectives from viral marketing.
Radiation issue is also a big issue that people concern for present electronic devices. Even though wearable technology is providing many advantages to healthcare, it is also being researched into whether wearable technology is safe due to the radiation it emits. At the moment, it has been noted that wearable technologies are smaller than a lot of other devices and therefore they do emit less radiation than devices such as smartphones.
Wearable technology is new lifestyle
With 250 million wearables predicted to be in use in 2018. Why? Because wearable becomes a trend of high-tech product. People used to bring credit card, mobile phone, notebook, and computer with them when they are out of home. This traditional lifestyle is going to be changed because of wearables. All those things and application you need to use can be concentrated in this one single and convenient tool. You want to track the situation of your body health, check the wearable; you want to make a call, use wearable; you want to make a payment, you can also use the wearable by its sensor technology. To make your life easier is the marketing mantra of wearable, and its successful marketing strategy and objectives can simply make wearable an inevitable alternative for everything you are using for now.
Rather than fitness tracker, smartwatch also have many other applications like map, playing music, receive calls and text message, voice research and go on. Some people think Fitbit is good enough for their needs, but its specialization in health is not enough for other people. Some people want more applications, more fashionable in wearable technology, and this is the reason they choose to buy smartwatch like Apple watch and Samsung gear. The price range of Apple watch is from $270 to $1400. Why is this range so big? Because some models are for some basic needs, some models are for people who like luxury experience. For example, Apple work with Hermes to make a luxury edition watch for people who chase fashion and high quality experience. The price range of Samsung gear is from $150 to $400.
According to the those prices, Samsung gear is cheaper than Apple watch, but why the market share of Apple’s is much more than Samsung’s?
I think there are two major reason cause it. One is that Apple’s basic users and its loyalists are solid. Another reason is the design and application that Apple watch has is more advanced and fashionable than Samsung gear.
Fad or Future?
There are a lot of applications that wearable technology offers the world today with most of the health and wellness industry being dominated with the latest and greatest. The data being collected from these technologies has a lot of potential such as allowing patients to jump healthcare providers with an easy swipe of their smart band or providing consumers with the ability to check their own activity statistics. Although the technology still has kinks to work out such as accuracy of readings and whether or not wearing a wearable 24/7 is safe, this is a growing industry, and the trend in the future.
By DINGKAI CHEN
