Wearable technology, according to Investopedia.com, is referred to as “electronics that can be worn on the body, either as an accessory or as part of material used in clothing. One of the major features of wearable technology is its ability to connect to the internet, enabling data to be exchanged between a network and the device.” Currently, the industry for wearable devices is a 700 million dollar industry with trackers that track everything from a person’s sleep habits and running trails, to calories burnt and steps walked. There are two major markets where regular wearable items currently have smart versions being manufactured and sold. These include the market for smartwatches and smartglasses, but when it comes to wearable technology those are just the beginning.
Smartwatches have been around in various forms since 1927 when the Plus Four Wristlet Route Indicator was made with a wristband and put on the wrist just like a normal watch. Now, of course, this “watch” was not digital at all and had only a preset map cartridge that you scrolled along to see your route from point A to point B, but it was still smarter than your average watch. In my opinion though, the first real digital smartwatch happened in 2002 with the Fossil Palm Pilot. This device was of course quite basic, it only had the basic calculator looking display, 2MB of internal memory and Palm apps such as an address book, a memo pad, a calculator, a date book and a to-do list, all things that the regular palm pilot had to begin with. From 2002 until now there have been multiple different versions of the smartwatch from Microsoft and Garmin in 2003 to Nike and Sony in 2012, lots of companies tried their hands at creating a different type of wrist tracker. In 2012 seemingly, the technology was finally there to make a decent smartwatch with applications, touchscreens, and more than 2MB of internal memory. Samsung has since become the leader in smartwatches with 1.2 million unit sales of wristwatches in 2014. Other companies as seen in the statista chart include pebble, fitbit, Sony, Lenovo, LG, and Garmin. Smartwatches are a growing trend that is expected to continue expanding as technology gets better.
The other wearable technology that is more current than the smartwatch are the smartglasses. Smartglasses are truly still an emergent technology that just barely started production in 2012. Google Glass was one of the first types of optical head-mounted, the prototype was ready in 2012 but unfortunately Google received criticism with every release they had with the glasses until in January of 2015 Google announced that it would stop producing the Google Glass prototype. Smartglasses seem to be early in the acceptance stage by customers, where people are used to seeing watches on the wrist and it was an easy transition to make watches have digital screens, applications, and tracking abilities it seems to be harder for people to come to terms with digital glasses that may hinder a consumers’ ability to interact while using the technology. The market for smartglasses is set to grow 20.4% between 2015 and 2022. Currently the marketplace has few options for decent smartglasses, but options such as Vue and Zeiss are seemingly getting closer to the type of product that consumers actually want. Smartglasses that do everything smartwatches do, but without looking too technological on your face and without interfering with your personal interactions. The Zeiss glasses were said that “if you really want a product that enables consumers to wear glasses daily the whole time, it must be light, it must look great, it must be small, thin, all this stuff.” Zeiss attributes their sleek design, normal weight lenses, and inability to tell the difference between the smartglasses and normal glasses to why their product is truly more successful than Google Glass ever was.
So as wearables become more of a common item in everyday life what are the big trends that will take place?
According to Niketa Patel who is the Director of Content for Rebelmouse, “Wearables will completely replace tablets, and social media will hyper-accelerate Big Data.” Implications of increasing wearable technology will allow for more collection of Big Data from individuals. Every fitbit wearer today has constant data collected on their sleeping habits, exercise habits, stress levels, calories, etc. This poses a new issue, what happens to all of that data? The idea of a “connected-health” system is great because it allows for more efficient ways to manage a person’s health and it allows customization based on individual data, but it also leaves vulnerability for marketers to take advantage of the Big Data collected from wearable technology. It is said that it is possible that “Americans now face a growing loss of their most sensitive information, as their health data are collected and analyzed on a continuous basis, combined with information about their finances, ethnicity, location, and online and off-line behaviors.” The general trend when it comes to the creation of a new technology is for the new technology to create new legal issues that have never been addressed before. At some point these new issues help create new laws mostly at some point after the product has entered the marketplace. With wearables, the biggest issue to start with will be privacy. This can be anything from your weekly sleep habits to your daily caloric intake. Some of the wearables allow people to track their consumption habits, this would be a goldmine for marketers to have access to. As smartwatches and smartglasses start to include more cameras and more tracking applications there will become more privacy issues regarding access to photos, videos, and even location. Currently there are no laws regarding the privacy of information tracked by wearable technology, this could create larger issues down the road for companies such as Samsung and fitbit.
Now of course, there is also a good side to the information tracked by wearable technology. This is most definitely seen through the idea of customization. Imagine 2050, a 25 year old female wakes up and puts on her wearable technology. This includes her watch, glasses, shoes and clothes, all of which are by today’s terms “smart.” The watch tells her that she slept for 1 hour and 6 minutes more than last night, but she is still sleeping worse than her 6 month average. Her watch suggests she take Vitamin mix #3, the mix for when she is started to get a cold. The woman then listens to the news on her smartglasses while walking a mile that is measured by her smart shoes while her glasses tell her which direction to go. Once she is 20 yards from her house, she starts her coffee by selecting which coffee she wants for breakfast and as soon as she has reached her door, the door unlocks and the lights turn on as she walks through the house to the kitchen. The thermostat is preset through the weather and her preferences on her smartwatch, a change is a simple voice command, while she sits and eats her breakfast the smartglasses update her daily food log just through pictures of the food and her smartwatch lets the local car to pick her up for work. This is just the potential that all of our smart technology will have in the years to come, the amount of customization will be amazing and everything will be able to happen at the sound of your voice or through the lifting of your finger. As wearable technology becomes more of a trend in the next fifteen to twenty years so will smart devices. It is almost inevitable to say that these technologies will at some point merge to create an entire experience that is customizable to every person’s daily preferences.
Other trends that are going to happen as wearable technology continues to take off as listed by Wired include: invisible, personalized, efficient, accurate, permissions-based, sentient, multi point, and seamless. One of the more important trends listed here is the idea of technology becoming invisible. This involves the idea of components getting smaller as efficiency is reached. The most obvious examples of this are things such as computers and storage devices. As wearable technology becomes more efficient it means that it will become more and more invisible, to the point where you won’t even know what items are smart and what are not. Another trend that Wired talks about happening with Wearables is that they will become more efficient and more accurate. The specific efficiency likely to happen involves energy to power wearable technologies. This can be anything from the “clothing with solar cells to charge devices” that Tommy Hilfiger launched or the “Peltier Ring by Sean Hodgins that leverages body heat to power small LED lights on a ring.” When it comes to being more accurate, wearable technology will have a higher demand from people to create accurate data for consumers. This can mean that in the future there will be an advocacy board that rates wearables on their accuracy so consumers know how good the device is that they are spending their money on.
The last trend that Wired talks about that is important to know when considering the future of wearables is this idea of multi point. The means that there will be a shift away from single wearable items to “the system of sensors on your body at any point in time.” This is bound to give a more complete view of how the body is functioning across many different devices. This idea goes back to the look into 2050 where the average person has five to ten smart devices around them at all times, all of which are connected via internet and work together to create a very user friendly, personalized interaction. There is a very high probability in the future that only have one wearable won’t be as effective as having a system of wearables all working together to create the best user experience. The idea of wearables will be to create a “seamless” experience for the consumer, all devices will be there to help make life easier.
Okay, so then what will happen with marketing? It is assumed that one day everyone will be wearing multiple wearable devices, all of which are constantly tracking and uploading personalized data for each and every individual wearing a device. This really opens a door to the customization of marketing and advertising to consumers. Lowe’s seems to be paving the way in trying to optimize the user shopping experience through the connection of the wearable technology and mobile devices. It is said that their goal is “to identify customer needs and then provide the answers to those as quickly as possible.” This can mean that customers create a list on a mobile app before entering the store and then once at the store they use a wearable app to show them the location of all the items in the store, thus creating a user friendly and easy shopping experience. This seems possible with wearables such as smartwatches and smartglasses as GPS becomes more accurate on smaller devices. The overall trend for marketers regarding data collected from wearables is going to be to get permission. The trick with getting permission is going to be getting the customer’s trust with their data and then adding value to their life through marketing. This will require marketers to successful create predictive models for consumers that customize offers and add value to the consumer experience. If consumers do not see the value in giving away their wearable data then they simply won’t give away permission.
Overall big picture trends for wearable and customization technology in the next five to ten years are hard to predict but a couple trends are already happening and are most likely to continue to trend as they are now. First of all, it is obvious that wearables, specifically smartwatches, are on the rise and are expected to reach a revenue of $95.3 billion in 2021 according to Tractica. Second, is it assumed at some point that VR, healthcare wearables, smart clothing, and MR (mixed reality) will take off and start competing with current wearable technology.
It is safe to say that tracking technology has huge potential among the healthcare industry, this can mean to “expect to have your smart watch warn you about a stroke or heart attack, days in advance, which is when wearables will start to be taken much more seriously.” Smart clothing, although the technology is already here and available, it seems almost unnecessary at this point in time, but there has already been a release for smart running shoes from Under Armour, this trend is expected to continue and take off in the next couple of years. The implications of these trends mean that within the next couple years wearable devices will be interconnected and create a user friendly experience for consumers but issues that tend to arise when looking at Big Data collected from wearables are the laws regarding privacy of data. Currently, no laws prohibit companies from giving away data collected from wearables, but consumers at some point will most likely have to give permission to marketers in order for them to be able to access their wearable data. Fast forward 30 years and there is a possibility that wearable technology will completely replace the use of mobile devices such as tablets and cellphones.
“The future of wearable technology in fitness and health isn’t about the fitness bands and health monitors — it’s about what can be done with the data they collect.” This quote is applicable to all types of wearables, the market trend for wearable technology seems to be increasing at a rate that shows the technology at some point being in every part of the average daily lifestyle. The interconnected devices and collection of data will be used together to create a user friendly experience that is personalized to each individual. The biggest part to take away from that quote is that without proper use of collected data, then the point is truly missed. Fast-forwarding twenty years from now, whether it be a smartwatch, smartglasses, smart shoes or smart clothes, devices will be connected and will work together as a wearable system that works with people and for people to make their life easier. A PricewaterhouseCoopers report says, “for wearables to be most valuable to the consumer, it needs to embrace Internet of Things (IoT) opportunities; transform big data into super data that not only culls, but also interprets information to deliver insights; and take a human-centered design approach, creating a simplified user experience and an easier means to achieve goals.”
The author of this piece is Chandra Taylor. Chandra is currently a management and marketing major at the University of Montana where she will be graduating and entering the workforce within the next month. She is an avid user of fitbit and loves the idea of wearable technology.
