Smartwatches Dying?

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chptrk67

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http://gizmodo.com/smartwatches-are-dying-because-they-are-worthless-1790001341?utm_campaign=socialflow_lifehacker_facebook&utm_source=lifehacker_facebook&utm_medium=socialflow

[h=1]Smartwatches Are Dying Because They Are Worthless[/h]



Images: Alex Cranz/Gizmodo
Back in April, I dropped $230 on a gadget that had me feeling that gadget love again. You’re familiar with the feeling too; the thrill you get walking into a Sharper Image store or thumbing through a Hammacher Schlemmer catalog. It’s that sense that you’re seeing a small glimpse of the future neatly packaged and commoditized for the present.

But as soon as my Apple Watch arrived in the mail, I almost immediately had a new name for it: My Great Regret. A big reason I’d purchased it was for the novel ability to turn my lights off and on with my watch, but in practice, the Phillips Hue light switch app was so slow it was easier to pull my phone out instead. But the worst part was that the watch just felt buggy. I never knew when texts and phone calls I’d get on my phone would actually push to my watch.
Relatively speaking, the only win was battery life. The Apple Watch lasted a strong 24 hours, which seemed great compared to other smartwatches, like the Moto360, which could usually only go about eight to twelve. But even then, I was scrambling for my Apple Watch charger every night, and with the need to charge a computer, phone, tablet, and e-reader, that scramble started to get tedious. Slowly, over time, I found myself reaching for my phone more and reaching at my Watch less—it’s been between two cushions in my couch for over a week now. My Apple Watch has come to feel less like the future and more like the spectacularly terrible now.
My Apple Watch has come to feel less like the future and more like the spectacularly terrible now.I’m not alone in my disappointment with Apple’s wristable, and more broadly with smartwatches as a whole. It’s the end of 2016, and it’s time to be honest: The smartwatch really never should have been. If you take one look at the half-baked products out there, it’s unsurprising that they’ve failed to excite anyone but the most devoted nerds.

The imminent demise of the smartwatch is evident in the numbers alone. At the end of last year, IDC, a major market analysis firm, noted that smartwatch sales had improved every year since Pebble kicked off the fad in 2012. IDC suggested that 2016 would see a big jump in sales from 2015, which would ultimately lead to smartwatches overtaking the simpler fitness tracker by as early as 2016. But that didn’t happen. Instead, the smartwatch market went into decline.
A more recent report from IDC suggests the Apple Watch, the most popular product of its kind, saw a 71.3 percent drop in sales from last year, overall sales dropped 51.6 percent.
The smartwatch’s loudest death knell was the announcement last week that Pebble sold its assets to Fitbit and that the company’s distinctive watches wouldn’t be made anymore. Despite both making wearables for your wrist, Pebble and Fitbit do very different things. Fitbit’s focus has always been fitness, with more smartwatch-like capabilities being treated as distant afterthoughts. While Fitbit is acquiring Pebble’s technology, there’s no assurances that the best features of Pebble’s smartwatch will survive the sale.


Pebble’s death speaks most plainly to the failures of the smartwatch as a whole, suggesting that even fixing the biggest problems with smartwatches couldn’t save them. There are many reasons that people don’t like smartwatches, but perhaps the most resonant is their terrible battery life. As I learned with my Apple Watch, the small battery you can stuff in a wristable device can’t power their fancy OLED or LED displays for more than a day. But the Pebble was better. Thanks to its e-ink display, it could last a week without a charge. And its for this reason that Pebble attracted a cult of devotees. It wasn’t enough.
Why could Pebble mainstream itself enough to make money? The problem with the Pebble is the same one that remains for the Apple Watch and all the other smartwatches. Ultimately, they don’t actually improve the wearer’s life enough to warrant their myriad of hassles. Sure, they can give you a rough measurement of your heart rate, or tell the time, or let you know when you receive an email. But your phone can do all that too. The convenience of the smartwatch is outdone by its inconveniences—the pairing with a phone, the need to charge, and the stigma of that glowing display that’s always on your wrist.

There’s the potential for the dire smartwatch situation to improve of course. When the Apple Watch’s latest software update dropped, I immediately found myself wearing my Apple Watch again, thanks to the speed boost and the ability to send texts from your wrist with a few scribbles across the screen. For a week or two, the fun factor of the smartwatch returned. The key for smartwatch makers will be to maintain that fun factor for the life of a device. Until that happens, the smartwatch will be just another lame gadget that’s lost under a couch cushion after a week of use.

 
I predicted this long ago when the first prototypes and images hit the news. There will have to be a very big shift in purpose of the things and addition to longevity (updatable hardware vs replacement) that will lower the attrition to keep the things popular. It could happen, I just don't see it.
 
Glad this train is fading hopefully the "fitness watch" craze is next:)


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This doesn't bode well for companies like Tag, and a few others, who announced last year, about this time, that they were working on smartwatch technology. I never really "got" the whole smartwatch thing anyway. Phones are more readily available...and the millenials are already joined at the hip with them. Give me the three hundread year old technology anyday!
 
A very interesting read indeed. Thanks for posting it, Paul.:good::cool2:
 
Funny thing is when I first heard that Apple was coming out with a watch I thought "that's it, streamline your life, sell your watches, simplify." Yeah that happened, lol.
 
I never had any interest in them at all. So as far as them making it or not I couldn't care less... :frown:
 
the problem with the smart watch is they are over priced, its funny you can find a Chinese knock off got 13.00 and an apple or Samsung cost 3 an 400.00 on release. I get the smart watch I really do. I don't facebook or tweet or hardly any social media on my phone at all for that matter. I got you guys and that's that. theres a convenience to not digging for my phone to see who callin when its deep in a duffle bag or laptop case ..... cause I sure aint throwing my valjoux in a duffle bag. heart rate, step counter these things are useful in todays world for most of us.
 
I never had any interest in them at all. So as far as them making it or not I couldn't care less... :frown:



My feelings exactly. Same goes for the health monitor things or whatever they are. Everyone at work started wearing the silly things but none of them can give me any positive comments about what good they get from them. I get the vibe that they continue to wear them so they don't feel like complete fools for spending the money.
 
Agreed with my same feelings.
 
Glad this train is fading hopefully the "fitness watch" craze is next:)


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I see people wearing them that don't even exercise. One told me me they wanted to know their sleep habits! Well what are they going to do about it, and don't they know what time that they go to bed and the time they wake up?
 
I wonder if it's age/generation dependent. When I look in the Apple Store watch displays, most are "kids", maybe under 30.
Not sure how old us WITS are as a group, but I'd guess older, and happy with things as they are.
And those "kids" have likely never had a gorgeous Invicta (lol....ok, ok..dont shoot ....insert your favorite watch brand here) on their wrists.
 
I'll stick with a stylish time piece... or more like a couple of cases of stylish timepieces. Why can't I stop? (sigh) I need an intervention.
 
Three of the four people who wear them at work are older than me and I'm 47.
 
Smart watches dying. Gee, that's a bummer.
So what else is new?
 
Three of the four people who wear them at work are older than me and I'm 47.
Same. Our guys are in their 50's. My kids wanted Fitbits. Oldest wanted it because the other girls in dance have them. It collects dust now. The twins wanted it because it can keep a log of their Cross Country runs and training, but apps on the iPhone do the exact same [no HR on these models], and they review the data on the iPhone anyway, and wear them on their training runs. When they compete, they are already timed. So these are useless toys too.
 
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