Apple had a very good holiday quarter, lead by strong sales of the iPhone and continued growth in its services business. But one of the key takeaways from this week’s earnings call was the expansion of its wearables business, which set new company records with 44% growth in the quarter. I’ve been saying for years … Continue reading Apple’s Wearables Juggernaut
The fitness wearables market has been brutal of late, with more exits than entrances over the past couple of years. Apple leads in global shipments, followed by Xiaomi, Fitbit, and Huawei, with the remaining 50% of the market divided between 20+ companies. Apple’s share has risen as the category has tilted toward the ‘smartwarch’ segment. … Continue reading Garmin’s Place in the Fitness Wearables Ecosystem
It is reasonable to believe that Apple has known for at least three years, if not more, that demand for the iPhone, with its current design and available apps, would hit a peak sometime in 2017-2018. Market watchers who look at worldwide demand for smartphones have also seen that the market was close to a … Continue reading Apple’s iPhone + Wearables Strategy
This week’s Tech.pinions podcast features special guest Steve Baker of NPD along with Ben Bajarin and Bob O’Donnell discussing the major trends in sales of various consumer electronics categories, including what’s doing well and what isn’t through the first half of 2018, and what to expect for the rest of the year. If you happen … Continue reading Podcast: US Consumer Electronics Trends: PCs, TVs, Headphones, Smart Home and Wearables
The Apple Watch had a very good 2017, with shipment volumes growing 56% year over year, catapulting the product to the top of the wearables market in terms of both shipment volumes and revenues according to IDC data. This has led many to suggest that there’s no real wearables market, just an Apple Watch market. … Continue reading The Evolution of the Wearables Market
Sometimes simplicity really is better—especially for tech products. Yet, we’ve become so accustomed and conditioned to believe that tech products need to be sophisticated and full-featured, that our first reaction when we see or hear about products with limited functionality is that they’re doomed to failure. That’s certainly been the case for a while now … Continue reading Wearables to Benefit from Simplicity
This week’s Tech.pinions podcast features Carolina Milanesi, Jan Dawson and Bob O’Donnell discussing product announcements and developments around the smart speaker and digital assistant markets, debating the opportunities for the new Windows Mixed Reality headsets, analyzing Google’s ARCore announcement, and chatting on new wearables from IFA. If you happen to use a podcast aggregator or … Continue reading Podcast: Smart Speakers, Windows Mixed Reality, Google ARCore, Wearables
Ben Bajarin and Tom Mainelli discuss the opportunity for a connected Apple Watch, discuss the wearable category, and think about what’s to come this fall in tech.
Understanding one’s true role and purpose is one of life’s greatest challenges. But it’s not supposed to be that way for devices. If they are to be successful, tech gadgets need to have a clear purpose, function, and set of capabilities that people can easily understand and appreciate. If not, well…there is a large and … Continue reading The Myth of General Purpose Wearables
News this week that Intel has eliminated its wearables team, which was part of its New Technologies Group, is just the latest in what seems like an ongoing drumbeat of bad news about the category. In recent times pioneering brands such as Pebble and Jawbone have departed the market, and the brand synonymous with the … Continue reading Wearables Still Have an Important Role to Play
When the idea of health and fitness wearables starting hitting the market, I was a critic of the health side. Mostly because I understood the health angle to be more focused on the value proposition of health monitoring for people who knew they had health issues. This is still the case for many people today. … Continue reading Wearables and Preventative Health
Perhaps the most surprising part of Apple’s earnings for many was the clarity for Apple Watch, with Apple stating sales had doubled year-over-year. Perhaps more interestingly, Tim Cook explained Apple Watch sales doubled in six of the top ten markets where it is sold. What makes this worth paying attention to is the bump came … Continue reading Wearables Gain Momentum
This week’s launch of Android Wear 2.0 and several new smartwatches designed to showcase the new operating system is a useful reminder of the state of the overall smartwatch market, which appears to have struggled outside of the Apple Watch. But it also serves as a useful prompt to consider the general state of the … Continue reading Whither Wearables?
Earlier this week, Bloomberg reported Apple is evaluating moving into digital glasses. According to “people familiar with the project who did not want to be identified” (when do they ever want to be?), the device would connect wirelessly to iPhones to show images and other information in the wearer’s field of vision. If there is … Continue reading The Perfect Ten of Wearables
I just came back from a holiday in Cancun where, as you can imagine, most of my activities were in the water or close to it. While a non-waterproof Apple Watch is an annoyance as I do occasionally swim, during my holiday I really came to dislike it was not waterproof. For most of my … Continue reading Waterproof, not Cellular, Might be the Killer Feature for Wearables
Oh, how far we’ve come from the Pulsar calculator watch 40 years ago. The now iconic gadget debuted in 1975 with tiny input buttons and limited functionality and can arguably be credited as the technology industry’s first “wearable.” It wasn’t until the introduction of Bluetooth headsets and Apple’s iPhone in 2007 that wearable technology began … Continue reading Where We Stand with Wearables
The more I study the consumer landscape for wearables, the more I’m convinced the wrong narratives are circulating about their value. Because the market is so young, most of the use cases being presented skew toward a tech or fitness lifestyle. Consumers see people running or working out as primary advertising angles and most won’t … Continue reading Wearables can Drive the Digital Health Movement
This year, some 50 million fitness trackers will be sold. Devices such as the Fitbit HR, Jawbone Up, and Garmin Forerunner are among the most popular “tech” gift items this holiday season. This category has come a long way in terms of capability and functionality. 2015 was the year where “optical heart rate monitoring” moved … Continue reading What’s Next for Fitness Wearables?
This week Tim Bajarin, Jan Dawson and Bob O’Donnell discuss screenless wearables, the concept of mobile app streaming, and the impact of Black Friday on tech device sales. Click here to subscribe in iTunes. If you happen to use a podcast aggregator or want to add it to iTunes manually the feed to our podcast … Continue reading Podcast: Screenless Wearables, Streaming Mobile Apps, Black Friday
The vast majority of attention focused on wearables has been on devices with an integrated screen, such as the Apple Watch. The general consensus seems to be that screens are necessary to provide the kinds of notifications and other forms of information for which many believe wearables are well suited. But a new breed of … Continue reading Screenless Wearables and New Means of Interaction
With the release of the Apple Watch, the announced IPO for FitBit, and the introduction of lots of other wearables, there’s an increasing focus on this market and how large the opportunity really is. I wrote about my firm’s view on the overall smart wearables market a little over a week ago, but I continue … Continue reading The Next Step for Wearables: Health Care
Welcome to this week’s Tech.pinion’s Podcast. This week, Ben Bajarin, Jan Dawson, and Bob O’Donnell discuss the wearables market, the opportunities and challenges for connected cars, and the future of IoT, or the Internet of Things. Click here to subscribe in iTunes. If you happen to use a podcast aggregator or want to add it … Continue reading Podcast: Wearables, Connected Car, IoT
Politics and religion are supposed to be two hot button topics you should avoid if you want to prevent arguments with friends, family and co-workers, but I think we can now add a third to that list: wearables. From the Apple Watch to Microsoft’s HoloLens, the FitBit to the Pebble, everyone seems to have an … Continue reading A Fresh Look at Wearables
One of the many challenges facing the wearable market is determining what exactly a wearable device can provide that other devices don’t already offer. In other words, they need to answer the question, what do I need it for? In most cases, that perspective is driven by the assumption that the wearable is essentially a … Continue reading Wearables + Connected Cars = IoT Heaven
This week Jan Dawson, Carolina Milanesi, and Ben Bajarin discuss the news around Mobile World Congress. We cover Samsung’s launch of new smartphones, the overall low-cost smartphone trend, and wearables/smart watches will all made an appearance in Barcelona. Click here to subscribe in iTunes. If you happen to use a podcast aggregator or want to … Continue reading Podcast: Samsung, Low-cost smartphones, Wearables, and MWC
