Wearable technology is projected to be the next big step in our march toward a more connected world. When it comes to something wearable that’s also intended to allow users to interact with the device and the internet as a whole, our two best options right off the bat are smartwatches and smart glasses. These are already accessories people wear and logicially lend themselves to some sort of smart interaction. But while there are a few early pioneers on the market today, no one has really nailed wearables. Making them attractive, easy to use and offer enough features for consumers are the biggest hurdles.
Tim Bajarin of Creative Strategies Inc. has experience with the Pebble, Samsung Galaxy Gear and Qualcomm Toq smartwatches. He found them cool – if limited at the moment – but believes the biggest problem is that, as the watches stand now, they’d only appeal to a “geek audience.” To capture everyday users, smartwatch makers need to address these three areas:
Design
While people buy watches to tell time (and in most cases, that’s a watch’s only function), the number one criteria in choosing a watch for most people is how it will look. It’s a fashion statement, not a technology one. …
Unfortunately when tech companies create smartwatches, their design goals center on the electronics. Design is secondary, at best. If smartwatches are to ever reach broad market potential, design and function must be equally important.
The second thing that’s important: killer apps. While there may be plenty of apps, the killer app for me is the ability for a smartwatch to alert me to incoming messages and emails. …
For me, that’s worth the price of these smartwatches, since it delivers exactly what I want in all types of business, social and even entertainment environments. I also like the fact that the three smartwatches mentioned above have a watch face that includes outside temperatures.
Ecosystem
Apps need to be extremely simple to find, buy and load onto a smartwatch. …
However, for smartwatches to truly become utilitarian, they eventually need to be standalone devices that can be connected to Wi-Fi or through cellular networks to gain access to a cloud-based way to download apps — not forced to connect through a smartphone. …
I also see a dedicated ecosystem of services designed just for smartwatches as important to the category’s ultimate potential. New user interfaces such as voice and gestures will need to be applied to smartwatches for them to become easier to use for a mass market.
I believe Tim is spot on with most of these statements. I also believe that it’s just a matter of time and a little innovation until someone releases a smartwatch the fits the bill.
While figuring out a way to make a smartwatch sleek and small while still powerful enough to support apps is a challenge, it’s one wearable companies will need to overcome if they want to capture more market share. (Full disclosure, I measured by wrist last week to see if I could wear a Pebble without looking ridiculous.) Once companies figure out how to make a watch that pairs well with a smartphone, they’ll likely start tackling the idea of completely independent watches that are their own ecosystem. Like I said, it’s only a matter of time and innovation.
The one thing I slightly disagree with Tim on is apps. The “at-a-glance” usefulness of the apps today’s smartwatches have is great, but I think the everyday user is going to want more. They’ll want all those fitness and health tracking apps on their wrist. They’ll want to be able to use apps to find stuff near by (think Yelp or Urbanspoon) or even for easy to access directions. They may even want games. The smartwatch app ecosystem is going to need to expand far and wide to capture users’ attention. Pebble is already addressing this issue with it’s newly launched Pebble appstore and in a few months we should see how it fared.
Read the rest of Tim’s article to get his take on where smartwatches stand now. Then, head to our comments section to add your opinion on where they need to go.