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Tech is looking for the new face of mobility — and it’s on your watch.
Apple and Samsung’s smartwatches, now in development, give Dick Tracy a 4G makeover. The devices are slated to hit the market as early as the end this year.
As smartphone and tablet saturation approaches, computer makers are searching for the next got-to-have mobile device.
Enter the smartwatch, which is the first foray into smart wearable gadgets, unlike the “dumb” Bluetooth ear piece.
“Wearables” also include accessories like Google Glass, which is with app developers now, and the Pebble Watch, which began as a Kickstarter campaign and raised more than $10,000 for CEO Eric Migicovsky.
Today’s smartwatches like the Pebble are hand-free devices wirelessly tethered to a smartphone, allowing you to glance at incoming e-mails and calls on an alternative screen.
They have no ability to answer calls or e-mails. The Pebble costs $150 and syncs up with iPhone and Android smartphones.
The next generation of smartwatches are said to be more robust, with apps that allow them to work somewhat independently from the smartphone.
Apple’s first smartwatch, which reportedly has over 100 product designers working on the platform, could take the device to the next level with possible features to include:
* A 1.5 inch display using Willow Glass, which according to its maker Corning Glass, can bend as easily as a piece of paper without breaking.
* Bluetooth two-way communications with microphone and speaker for answering calls and e-mails.
* A new iOS — to run Siri, the voice assistant, and a revamped iMaps — so apps can run independent of a smartphone.
In later versions the smartwatches may also have wi-fi hot-spot capabilities and near field communication and fingerprint scanning technology for digital payments and security.
The idea analysts say is to create a new category without hurting smartphone sales, along the lines of how tablets do not have all the functionality of laptops.
While the smartphone industry is growing and projected to increase over the next few years, the rate of escalation is slowing, says research firm IDC.
In fact, while the smartphone industry grew 34.4 percent from 2011 to 2012, from $219.1 billion to $294.5 billion in revenue, this rate is expected to slow dramatically.
Projected smartphone revenue in 2013 is $348 billion, but IDC says that from 2016 to 2017, the revenue will slow to just a 4 percent growth rate, reaching $462 billion.
So as emerging tech companies attempt to capture more revenue in the smartphone market, premium phone makers, like Apple, could suffer — especially when consumers might not be all that jazzed about getting the latest upgrades.
According to a report by Gartner, though Apple had 435 million units sold in 2012’s fourth quarter, consumers preferred to purchase older models like the iPhone 4 and 4S over the iPhone 5.
“As consumers were financially constrained in 2012, other devices took priority, such as tablets, or money was not spent on the upgrades to a new device that would have locked most consumers into a new contract,” explains Carolina Milanesi, research vice president at Gartner.
Which is why smartphone makers like Apple and Samsung might be seeking more potential to capture consumer dollars by capitalizing on broadband wristbands.