Smart Watch — from a companion device to a productivity tool
The era of wearable technology is coming. From fitness band to running watch, from smart shoes to smart watch, we are wearing more and more smart devices.
In 2015, Apple debuted its first Apple Watch and created a wave of interests in smart watches. We will look at some of the popular smart watches in the market and also see how they stack up against each other.
Extended War of iOS V.S Android
Since the launch of Apple Watch, Apple quickly dominated the market with about 60% of market share.In 2014, Samsung shipped 1.2M units of smart watches. However, in 2015 in about 8 months, Apple shipped 7m units, which is bigger than total number of other manufactures.
Once again, we will probably see a watch version of iOS and Android battle,with Android catches market share quickly. IDC predicts Andorid Wear will get about 40% of market share by 2019. Given the performance of Android in smartphone market, I believe android wear will be more than 40%.
Smart watches are similar to each other
Smart watches are similar to each other, in terms of shape, size, spec, functionalities. Below is a comparison list of popular watches in the market today. Except for Fitbit and Garmin, which fully focus on fitness, other watches are actually the same. They use the same operating system, have almost same size of display, and function more or less the same way.
Right now, I see watches are used as companion devices to phones
•Extended screen for smartphone: receive or send voice calls, messages/notifications, navigation, payment, etc. In this situation, watch need to be paired with phones, otherwise, it won’t function independently. For example, most watches don’t have a GPS sensor.
•Health and fitness devices: almost all smart watches can track your heart rate, running activities. However, they don’t go beyond that too much. I believe eventually those fitness wearable devices will be replaced by smart watches
•Fashion device: unlike phones, watches used to be seen as fashion products. With so-called “smart elements” in it, it become even more a tech-fashion product.
They also have similar user interfaces, with some degree of variation.
I think there are two possible reason for lack of differentiation in smart watch.
(1) Platform defines a bigger part of user experience and user cases. There are only two platforms designers can choose — ios and android wear.
(2)It’s hard to created and communicate functionalities/ usages in the form of a watch. People get used to the idea that form implies functionality. for example, if you see a cup shape, you probably imply that it can be used as a cup. With microchips and software, you can basically design a product in any shape. But you face challenges of communicating the usage. A watch shape used to indicate that the product are used as to tell time, or wear as a fashion. So it is really hard to add functionalities and ask people to use that function on a watch. For example, most smart watches can make and receive phone calls, but it would be weird to talk to your wrist instead of putting a device between you ear and mouth.
The future of smart watch lies in personal productivity
I think future smart watches will be used more and more as personal productivity tools. It will become more a separate device than a companion device of smartphone.
Mobile Payment: Payment will shift onto smart watch dramatically. It’s more conveniently, and more intuitively. In shopping malls, gas stations, restaurants,etc, a simple touch will do the work.
Personal assistant: More than Google Now. Unlock you car, unlock you door, control your thermostats, setup a time to wash dishes, find shopping items in a large mall with RFID, all these things can be done easily on smart watch.
Ongoing diagnosis: a decade from now, people will feel very strange that we don’t visit a doctor until a heart attack attacks. It would be strange that we start losing weight after gaining 10 lbs. It would be strange that we talk to a phycologist after months or even years of depression. With smart watch, ongoing diagnosis is possible. Send a smile face while you’re doing work you like, being in a place you want, or send a frown face to say you’re doing something you don’t like, you had a bad commute this morning, etc. Using these type of data, we can analyze and predict what type of work we are good at and enjoy doing it, what type of work we don’t like and causes unhappiness. That will dramatically impact the way we see work and happiness. We will also be able to do predictive prevention before a serious disease happens.
A smart watch will never be an extended screen of your smartphone, but truly a device that knows you and helps you in life.
Reference:
http://www.statista.com/chart/3290/samsung-leads-the-smartwatch-market/
http://www.forbes.com/sites/paullamkin/2015/11/05/apple-watch-sales-hit-7-million/
http://www.smartwatch.me/t/apple-outshines-samsung-in-smartwatch-sales-in-q3-2015/1385
