It seems like every other day brings a new story about upcoming smartwatches. The big one, of course, is that Apple is allegedly planning an iWatch. This has been a fairly persistent rumor for roughly three years, ever since the square iPod Nano came on the scene and became a favorite to mod into a watch.
Great looks, horrible battery life.
There’s also talk that Microsoft is working on a device for the wrist, and Samsung has gone so far as to actually confirm that it is indeed working on one. This is not even counting the existing smartwatch devices, like Sony’s SmartWatch (actual product name), Motorola’s MotoACTIV, and the device that arguably reignited the interest in the watch form factor in the first place, the crowd-funded Pebble (as seen at the top of this article).
Note the use of the word “reigniting” above. This is not the tech industry’s first go around with smartwatches. From 2004 to 2008, Microsoft assured us that the SPOT watch was the next big thing. How badly did that product fail to take hold in the marketplace? More people owned Zunes than SPOT watches. Back before connectivity was the key factor in a smart device, Fossil gave us the Palm OS watch, featuring an operating system that had been discontinued ages before launch and a price tag that no one could love.
Obsolete and overpriced? I’ll take three!
Additionally, let’s not forget the wildcard here. The entire smartwatch market segment could be leapfrogged by the coming of Google Glass and similar HUD solutions, much in the way the tablet market killed off netbooks. After all, why glance at your wrist (for the time, a text message, stock quotes, sports scores, a Facebook update, etc.) when you can just keep looking straight ahead?
Imagine everyone in NY crossing the street like this.
None of that should mean the form factor should be dismissed. After all, MP3 players existed before the iPod, as did smartphones before the iPhone and tablets before the iPad. The trick was that Apple saw what was and wasn’t working in those existing niche arenas and made something that was very much a consumer electronics device aimed at the general public. This time around, Samsung and other electronics giants are using the same playbook. The question is not “Will smartwatches (finally) take off?” or even “Who will make the best smartwatch?” Rather, the question is “Who will win the hearts and minds of the segment that will buy a smartwatch?”
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