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Android Wear Hopefuls Call Timeout On Smartwatches (cnet.com)
Things are not looking good for Google's Android Wear. Three of the top Android Wear smartwatches maker have confirmed that they won't be releasing a smartwatch in the waning months of the year. From a CNET report:While LG launched a watch in the first half, it'll have been more than a year since Huawei and Motorola offered an update on their wearables. That marks a reversal from last year, when all three companies launched Android Wear smartwatches at the early September IFA trade show in Berlin in what was supposed to be a resurgence of the platform. At this year's show, Chinese maker Asus was the only major tech company to return with a new Android Wear watch. The poor showing underscores the general lack of enthusiasm for smartwatches, which the industry has touted as the next hot trend in tech. Consumers, however, continue to question the usefulness of these gadgets. Even Apple, which leads the market for smartwatches, saw its shipments fall 55 percent from a year ago in the second quarter, according to IDC. "Smartwatches still have yet to make a significant impression on consumers as a must-have device," said Ramon Llamas, an analyst at IDC. Time stands still for some in the smartwatch market.
Consumers, however, continue to question the usefulness of these gadgets.
Not optimism in the smartwatch market, optimism about humanity in general.
You just need big pockets.
Try rebranding the "smartwatch" into the "SmartBracelet". Then the entire band can be the display.
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
Meanwhile, Pebble looks to be doing just fine with their smartwatches. However, they use color e-ink (better battery life), are much cheaper, and don't need a new line of service activated. They connect to the internet via Bluetooth on your phone. Perhaps the other manufacturers should strip their watches down and focus on what consumers would want: a durable watch, with battery life past a day or two, and doesn't cost extra with phone service.
Smartwatches are awesome. I'd love to have one... but the cost just doesn't justify what you get. It falls into the same pit as the Apple products. Spend a lot, get a little. If they could manage to make a good watch for say $100 or so, I'd be all over it.
The only smartwatch app I've ever really used (well, it's not really an app) is the vibrate functionality on them.
Noisy environments such as datacentres, construction or forestry sites where you can't hear your phone ring are prime uses for the smartwatch vibrate. It means you no longer need to have you phone on your person to to catch incoming messages - important in areas where the phone is subject to physical damage in your pocket or to external forces such as when working in forestry. Hell, I've even damaged the belt clip just getting out of the car. Some belt clips tend to insulate you from the vibration, too. With the smartwatch vibration, you can keep your phone in a lunchbox, a backpack, a glovebox, or anywhere you like, and be notified of messages by a vibrating wristwatch instead, given sufficient bluetooth range. (And as an added benefit, in jurisdictions like mine where using handheld devices is illegal while driving, it looks like you're checking the time! but I digress...)
Granted, it's the only use I've ever found for a smartwatch - aside from the aforementioned checking of incoming messages before deciding whether or not to act on them - but I have found it to be a "killer app", given specific conditions. That function alone makes a smartwatch worthwhile for me. Unfortunately, it could be accomplished with a $20 bluetooth gizmo but I need to buy a $300 watch for it.
"Government is like fire; a handy servant, but a dangerous master." -- George Washington
I still don't get why I should want one. I still have to carry my phone anyways. And it can show me the time just fine, so I don't even need a watch.
For whatever it's worth (exactly one anecdote), I really like my smartwatch (it's a Gear Live, square face, fairly early vintage.) Picture here.
It puts text, email, slack and other notifications right where I can see them without having to reach for anything, turn it on, etc. That alone is worth a lot, as most things can be ignored until later, but for the ones I want to know about and respond to immediately, I can. Timers are very useful, I use them for many things from timing aquarium water top-offs to cooking and reminding me to let the dog back in. The watch faces are very clever and pretty, and I like them a lot, even though I answer to no one and very rarely care what time it is. The tracking of my heart rate and steps is nice too, as I need to pay attention to my health. Doesn't hurt to be able to ask it questions, either. All of this is either nearly or completely hands-free. For instance, rotate wrist so the watch is up, it wakes up. Then say: "Ok google, set a timer for five minutes." Easy. Awesome. Super-useful.
This stuff is quite practical (even the time... most people need to know, even if I don't.)
Just like any gadget, it's not for everyone, I'm sure. But I really don't think you can put a smartwatch in the general category of "doesn't make sense." Instead, put anyone who says that in either the "doesn't make sense for me" category, or in the "I don't understand smartwatches" category, for which you can, if you like, lay the responsibility for at the watch manufacturer's feet -- specifically, marketing. Most smartwatch ads I've seen haven't been very... smart.
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
"Smartwatches still have yet to make a significant impression on consumers as a must-have device," said Ramon Llamas, an analyst at IDC.
They mostly are a solution looking for a problem. Smartwatches are useful in some very particular circumstances, mostly where it is inconvenient or ill-advised to carry a smartphone. Those circumstances are not widely applicable in most people's every day lives and therefore there is limited market need for smartwatches. Relatively few people of my generation and those younger wear a watch routinely. People want to wear fewer devices, not more so at best it tends to replace a watch for those who were already prone to carrying one. For the rest of us it actually ADDS a device to carry when the trend it actually to carry less. My smartphone replaced my point-and-shoot camera, my PDA, my calendar, my MP3 player, my laptop in some circumstances and oh yeah it makes calls. Plus it can do everything a smartwatch can do except be small.
Smartwatches are mostly useful for looking at notifications and deciding whether I need to act upon that information or if I can just make a mental note and swipe right. It saves me time picking up and/or unlocking my phone to see a notification. There's not really any compelling smartwatch apps that wouldn't be more useful as a fullscreen smartphone app.
The watch can control a presentation being played from your smartphone. This allows you to travel real light.
The tap on the wrist during turn-by-turn directions is nice. You don't have to turn down the stereo for fear of not hearing a reminder on the phone.
When thinking about what could be compelling I'd start with what is unique for the watch. The first thing that comes to mind is that the watch has a heart rate sensor, so something utilizing that would go beyond "I don't have to reach for the phone". Secondarily when might a person have the watch but not the phone.
Watches are about style, not function
As a scuba diver and a private pilot I disagree. :-)
Smartwatches also have heart rate sensors.
There are a few corner cases where smartwatches are advantageous but these have been insufficiently explored to date. Smartwatches have two primary uses. 1) a highly portable data-logging sensor suite and 2) a compact display for compact messages. These are useful things but for most use cases a smartphone can serve the same purpose AND have a lot more capabilities besides. The corner cases where a smartwatch makes a big different don't apply to most people most of the time and so it should surprise no one that they haven't been taking over the world sales-wise.
Haptic feedback is another partial differentiator, it can tap you on the wrist to get your attention.
As you say smartphones can do this too. The fact that there are some corner cases doesn't generally make a good case to buy a smartwatch unless those corner cases are super important. I would argue that your example is not a particularly big problem.