Amid much speculation on the future of the “smartwatch,” the consensus is growing: The time is right.
In recent weeks, reports have surfaced about plans for smartwatches from tech giants Apple, Samsung and Google, with launches possible later this year.
“I think we have reached a tipping point,” said Avi Greengart, analyst on consumer devices at the research firm Current Analysis.
Greengart said this year may be the year for the smartwatch because “the components have gotten small enough and cheap enough” and a large number of consumers now have smartphones that can connect to a wearable device.
The idea of the connected watch has been around for at least a decade: Microsoft had one in 2003. Some devices are already on the market including from Sony, the crowdfunded maker Pebble and Italian-based firm I’m.
Up to now, smartwatches have been able to connect to phones wirelessly to give users signals about new messages, and allow some limited Web access.
However, analysts say once they gain traction, app developers can come up with new functions, possibly drawing on health and fitness monitoring devices now in use.
The likely entry of new heavyweight players like Apple “can catalyze the market,” Greengart said, while adding that any new device has to prove its utility to consumers. “This is a market that needs to be created.”
Even though Apple has maintained its customary silence on the subject, that has not stopped speculation on the Internet, including a likely design of a curved glass “iWatch.”
ABI Research predicts that smartwatches and other wearable computing devices will “explode in popularity over the next year” and grow to 485 million annual device shipments by 2018.
“The furor about wearable technologies, particularly smart watches and smart glasses is unsurprising,” ABI analyst Josh Flood said.
“Apple’s curved glass-based watch could prove to be a revelation in the wearable technologies market. The major question is whether the digital time piece will act as a complimentary device to the company’s iPhone smartphones or as a standalone product with other functionalities like health or activity tracking capabilities,” he said.
Citi analyst Oliver Chen said the smartwatch segment, which now includes devices from Fossil and Movado, could easily evolve into a US$6 billion annual business with “higher than average” profit margins.
“A successful smartwatch likely needs to create a completely new market and not compete on fashion or luxury brand prestige,” Chen said.
Forrester Research analyst Sarah Rotman Epps said that “the body is the next frontier for personal computing,” and that “it seems like only a matter of time before Apple enters the market directly.”
Epps said that this market could grow because “consumers love their smartphones, and there is some appeal in having an additional touchpoint,” which could allow a user to check messages or use other smartphone apps from the wrist.
However, she said that there are several other potential types of competing wearable computing devices, including Google Glass and other “smart” eyeglasses.
“I’m not convinced the smartwatch is the killer form factor,” Epps said.
Danielle Levitas, analyst at the research firm IDC, said there is an opportunity for smartwatches and other wearable devices because consumers want to be connected without pulling out a phone, which might be impolite in some situations.
“It’s less rude to glance at your wrist than to take your phone from your back pocket,” she said.
However, it will take some time for the market to sort out what consumers want.
“You could have a device with all the smarts embedded, or a device with lower costs that connects to a smartphone,” Levitas said.
Pricing of a fully autonomous watch could be US$300 or more, she said, plus data charges, but a smartphone-linked device may cost as little as US$100.
Levitas said manufacturers will have to find the right size of display — large enough to be useful without being cumbersome.
“It’s going to be harder for women than men,” she said. “If it’s big enough to be useful, it may look totally dorky. This may only appeal to certain segments.”
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
MAJOR BENEFICIARY: The company benefits from TSMC’s advanced packaging scarcity, given robust demand for Nvidia AI chips, analysts said ASE Technology Holding Co (ASE, 日月光投控), the world’s biggest chip packaging and testing service provider, yesterday said it is raising its equipment capital expenditure budget by 10 percent this year to expand leading-edge and advanced packing and testing capacity amid strong artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing chip demand. This is on top of the 40 to 50 percent annual increase in its capital spending budget to more than the US$1.7 billion to announced in February. About half of the equipment capital expenditure would be spent on leading-edge and advanced packaging and testing technology, the company said. ASE is considered by analysts