Don't follow Smartwatches closely but this doesn't sound promising http://gizmodo.com/what-fitbit-paid-for-pebble-is-undeniably-sad-1792652616
I know of zero people happy with them. Well Ariel Adams like the Apple Watch... as nothing new has been added on them and they still have the same limitations on them. People are not rebuying nor is there a compelling case to get one now if you have not had one already. I know more then a few people that ditched them and went mechanical.
I work for a tech company. 18 people in the office. 2 mechanicals (me and a vintage Rolex datejust guy). One analog quartz from the '80s (Longines) and the rest are smart watches. Apple, Fitbit, Samsung and Garmin. Smart watch guys seem happy. I give them a hard time about charging every night but it doesn't seem to bother them.
I work in an elementary school. Most of the teachers, who wear some sort of watch, seem to wear smart watches. I see a lot of apple watches, and the Fitbit blaze.
I think the bubble has burst, key players with deep pockets are buying up what they can, and in 18 months time, there will be a big 3/4. Apple, Samsung, FitBit, Polar. Prices will drop lower, and these will be the modern day equivalent of the Casio fw91 - cheap (ish) and everywhere.
Where I work the smart watches are in the vast majority especially with the younger workers. Apple is their preference.
Smart watches will certainly survive in some form - there is a definitely a market for them, and much larger than the vintage many of us love. For me, not enough utility to earn wrist space. Wearables are a great idea, and I'm sure the tech to come in the next decade will amaze.
Happy to stand up and be counted, I really like my Apple watch but no way could it be my one and only.
I have to agree. My Apple Watch is my go to for certain things like cycling, driving, and winding up my girlfriend while she's on my phone. The thing that annoys me and I'm sure others, is the relatively limited capabilities as Apple drip feeds features into the next 10 or so models.
I recently worked for tech start-up. The owner is an MIT professor and the others, besides me, are his graduate students. The company develops bleeding-edge photonic chips. - Professor: Contemporary Omega Seamaster diver's watch - Engineer 1: Casio (it's cheap, robust, keeps time well...) - Engineer 2: Nice looking no-name watch with dial and hands - Engineer 3: No wrist-watch - Engineer 4: No wrist-watch - Engineer 5: No wrist-watch So no smart-watch in this group of world-class engineers. Engineers in general tend to be pragmatic types, not going for gadgets, luxury or trends. Michel
Speaking about smart watches and not Fitbit.... I will not predict the future of these watches but on the other hand, I suspect that a very successful company like Apple has a very competent product development department and a very smart market analysis Team to boot --- perhaps those who are predicting the demise of these watches are right and Apple will continue to ignore the lacking profits, flat sales and huge losses from the previous releases and their vision for a third release is just a total non-sense and money-loosing proposition....someone needs to alert Apple's board of directors and tell them that this is a terrible idea... http://www.macworld.co.uk/feature/a...s-specs-rumours-display-patents-2017-3647016/ https://www.macrumors.com/2017/02/21/apple-watch-series-3-glass-film-touchscreen/
I think they are very much in their infancy still. Companies are still trying to figure out exactly what a smart watch is, from the Apple Watch to the Tag Connected watch there is a lot of variety in the smart watch design at the moment. I had the original Apple Watch from day one. Kept it about a year. I liked it but it was never groundbreaking. It started to annoy me that I'd be speaking to people and my watch would buzz and instinctively I would look down at my wrist, ignoring the person I was speaking to. I ditched it after a year and have zero desire to get a smart watch. I don't think they are going anywhere anytime soon though. I was in a meeting last week with 3 other people, all 3 were wearing smart watches. Anecdotal but hit home to me how many people are wearing smart watches.
I've noticed the people where I work (a large office campus) that have been early adopters of the true smart watches - not the Fitbits or Garmin running watches - all stop wearing their smart watches after 6 months to a year or so. I have even asked a few why, and the main themes are daily charging becomes a hassle and the novelty wears off when they realize their phone does more, and does it better, than their watch. The few things the watch could do better than the phone didn't justify continued wear. Mechanical watches are still the vast minority though. The Fitbit/Garmin crowd is growing. Most of these people are runners or cyclists and they seem to be like us mechanical watch collectors, in that they wear some fitness watch every day and they often have collections of multiple devices.
Enhance the battery life and remove the need to have it married to an iPhone and the Apple watch remains a relevant device. But don't lose sight of the real mission for Apple, and the industry at large: Seamless delivery of computing power and networking to provide access to entertainment, information, commerce, and social interaction. Computation and networking is already powerful and tiny; the challenge lies in displays and user interfaces, and the wrist is the current platform to try out ideas to solve both. Apple is only passing through the 'wrist space', on their way to far greater technology to accomplish their mission.
I like the idea of in-ear wearables. Imagine having information about a business contact you're meeting face to face piped right into your ear as you shake hands, or your next appointment announced quietly during a meeting. No need to glance at anything. https://www.wareable.com/hearables/bragi-starkey-hearables-future-of-wearables ....and plenty of space on your wrist for a nice watch!