Why Smartwatches Failed

Megalith

Megalith

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As more and more companies exit the market, it’s clear that smartwatches failed as a product category: this writer proposes that the primary misstep was that Apple, Samsung, and other major smartwatch makers did not focus on the enterprise first. The argument is that their cost, bulkiness, and other shortcomings (which turned consumers away) would actually be tolerated in the professional world as long as there was an efficiency payoff.

Kantar Worldpanel ComTech reported that as of December, just 15.6% of U.S. consumers owned a smartwatch or fitness band, barely higher than the year before (compare this to the 77% of Americans who own a smartphone). Fewer than 10% of European consumers own smartwatches. But even this low number hides a more telling reality: Many consumers who did buy smartwatches don't wear them. After purchase, and some months of use, those watches are now gathering dust in a drawer somewhere. Because: What's the point?
 
The reason main line smart watches failed for me is the constant need to be charged. Now I have a fitbit charge 2, which is built to be functional instead of being a good looking smart watch. Yes, it has a crappy screen, but it still lasts 3 or 4 days before needing charged compared to 1 or 2 days. It gives me the heart rate monitor, sleep tracking, and step counter that I like.

Before my fitbit I had no idea how bad my sleep habits were.
 
They weren't devices, they were peripherals for other devices.

That and, people have been making watches for centuries, they've figured out what looks good and how big/small a watch can be before people stop buying them. Maybe, just maybe... Make $300 watches that look like actual $300 watches, not some miniature phone strapped to someone's wrist.
 
What I want on my smart watch, 100% of which could be done with simple symbols and doesn't even have to be a full LCD screen:
Time
Notifications
Weather?

What manufacturers thought we wanted on a smart watch (In Order of "importance"):
Facetime
Calling
Voice Recording
GPS
Snapchat
Camera
Contacts
Some crazy james bond bullshit
An umbrella
notifications
...
...
Time.


Classic over thinking. Could have made a fortune pumping out $100-$150 BASIC smart watches.
 
I love my Samsung Gear S3. It regularly lasts 2-3 days between charges.

I do however, see the frustration with the original Apple Watch (which probably accounts for most smart watches out in the wild). My wife has one and it lasts almost exactly one day. Most of the time she doesn't wear it because she forgot to put it on the dock. This is the position I see most people in - they want the functionality of the smart watch, but they don't want to charge it.

Sure, there are improvements beyond battery life, but I think it's the biggest factor scaring people away.
 
Smart Watches need a phone to link to in order to function properly, yes? Seriously, if you have the phone, why would you need the watch? Also, as a Navy Flight Engineer I managed to break the face on literally every single watch I have ever worn (military aircraft tend to handle like old pickup trucks, and ride just as smooth)... a $60 Casio or Timex, sure.. I can live with that, but a $300 Samsung? Yeah.. fuck that noise...

I think things like Smart Phones are just fancy jewelry and bragging rights.. and terribly inefficient in execution.
 
James Robinson said:
Smart Watches need a phone to link to in order to function properly, yes? Seriously, if you have the phone, why would you need the watch? Also, as a Navy Flight Engineer I managed to break the face on literally every single watch I have ever worn (military aircraft tend to handle like old pickup trucks, and ride just as smooth)... a $60 Casio or Timex, sure.. I can live with that, but a $300 Samsung? Yeah.. fuck that noise...

I think things like Smart Phones are just fancy jewelry and bragging rights.. and terribly inefficient in execution.
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Once apple finally untethers the damn smart watch from the phone THEN i can finally buy one. I loathe having to carry around my brick of a phone while running...in the rain... sure i can put it in a waterproof continer, holder, or support thing, but it's still awkward as hell. I want to run, listen to music, record GPS of my run with heart rate monitor, and if needbe answer that call that i've been waiting on.

We are almost at the Dick Tracy level of smart watches now as soon as we FINALLY get a phone in our watch.
 
I was very bummed to hear that Fitbit purchased Pebble as I really like my Pebble smartwatch. As noted above one major concern for me was the battery life. The Pebble watch I have is good for a solid 10 days between charges. Additionally I didn't want an extremely expensive accessory either. We'll see what comes out of Fitbit in the next few months.
 
Basically, they are miniature phones that, well, require a phone to attach to.

Basic functions is what people really wanted, because they aren't strong enough to last long with all of these un-needed add-ons. GPS watches and fitbands serve the purpose better.
Also the early ones looked uncomfortable and clunky as shit, they probably lost a lot of people on pumping a fad out instead of making something long lasting, which 300$ for a normal watch will get you.
 
I personally don't see a use for one, but I'm unconvinced they've failed. I see a lot of people with smart watches. I don't know what brand they are off hand (if the screen is off htey all look the same to me). I don't know about the other guys, but rumor is that Apple will finally put an LTE radio in the watches, which eliminates the need to carry your phone for data (though unless phone companies cut a great deal, it means you're paying them 2x for service). However, if you live in a country with cheap cell service, it may not matter.
 
Yeah I just never saw the real purpose. Plus $$$, and you have to charge them all the time? Screw that.

I do wear a standard watch for work but usually don't otherwise.
 
Hmm let me think!! Drop this

2892092_xxl.jpg


For this
S1-42-alu-silver-sport-white-grid-201703


Not going to happen
 
I really quit wearing a watch once my phone had the time on it. I'll still wear one when I have to dress formally, but daily wearing of a watch is sort of moot at this point. I have a device in my pocket that does that and everything else. No need for redundancy that costs several hundred dollars.
 
Burticus said:
Yeah I just never saw the real purpose. Plus $$$, and you have to charge them all the time? Screw that.

I do wear a standard watch for work but usually don't otherwise.
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Charge all the time? The better ones, not apple or android can go a month between charges and are built as rugged as nechanical watches. Check out the garmin watches.
 
I haven't warn a watch in over 10 years. Why would I start to wear one now? If I want to know the time and I am not at my computer, I will glance at a clock in view. If there is no clock in view, I pull out my cell phone, which takes less than 5 seconds to get out of my pocket, look at the time, and put it back. Plus I don't like the feel of a watch on my wrist.
 
I see a lot of Apple Watches in the circles I hang out in. I also see a lot of FitBits - not really too many Android Wear devices.
For me, I tried to use several smart watches from different vendors. I thought the Apple Watch was the best of the bunch. However, I am not wearing any of the watches. Several reasons:
1. Another device to charge and proprietary chargers
2. Not a lot of point? I now have my phone dinging and my watch tapping. It's overkill. I also experience "phantom" notifications on both devices (this is when I think I felt/heard a notification, but didn't).
3. I type a lot and find wearing a watch uncomfortable while typing.
 
Samsung has lte in one model of the gear s3 and it works quite well away from the phone.

Girlfriend has one and I don't think I have seen use her regular cell outside the house since.

A small, simple yet functional and long lasting watch may be a good selling product.
 
I have a Samsung Gear S2 from when they were $50.

Love to wear it to work. I always notifies me when I get a text or something.

Also wear it jogging, as it can function as a stand alone cell phone.

I really want an Omega with a tiny smart functionality.
 
So much misinformation in this thread:

Android Wear 2 watches you can install apps on the watch. I have a moto 360 sport & It has it's OWN GPS & app tie-ins and I specifically use it to go running so I DONT'T have to carry a phone with me. When I get home it auto transfers my run, with heartbeat mearsurements & gps co-ordinates to my phone. This was pre-android wear 2.0. I just got the update and haven't run since so I don't know how it's changed.

There ARE watches with LTE capability & can function as a phone. Don't recall brands but I remember reading about it 1+ years ago.

I think the real reason smart watches have "failed" as people don't understand what they can & can't do.
 
Vashypooh said:
Because this is fake news.
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No it's not. It literally says in the article that adoption rates, which were never mind blowing, have remained stagnant. That the person you were replying to was giving at best anecdotal evidence, does nothing to refute the article.
 
percydaman said:
No it's not. It literally says in the article that adoption rates, which were never mind blowing, have remained stagnant. That the person you were replying to was giving at best anecdotal evidence, does nothing to refute the article.
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Stagnation does not equal failure.
 
I have a first gen Moto 360 that I wear every day. I like seeing notifications without looking at my phone. That is all it is to me. Time and notifications. I have used it to call people, but I still have to grab the phone and hit speaker unless I have a headset on. For the price, mine was a gift, it is great. I wouldn't spend $300 on one personally.
 
Trimlock said:
Stagnation does not equal failure.
Click to expand...

In the tech world that isn't really true. Stagnation before a product hits a point of self sustaining sales absolutely = death.

Some products simply hit way to early and kill themselves off... sometimes a slight change to the product down the road by another party becomes a hit.

It is happening right now with the smart watches. They where to big and bulky and the initial products tried to do more then they where technically capable of pulling off. It looks like what will replace smart watches will be the simpler fitness type Time+health junk+notifications>.< type devices. In the future those products may grow to look more like the iwatch stuff when the tech matures or not.

Same trend happened to smartphones. Microsoft beat apple and google to the smartphone market by years. They even had multiple partner companies making MS OS running smart phones... but they bit off more then they could chew. People at the time saw them as pointless for the most part... they where not very good at making calls compared to a standard cell phone of the day, and they where not quite powerful enough to run much useful software wise. When apple hit with the iphone stagnation had already driven most of MS partner manufacturing partners away and MS themselves hadn't really improved on the platform much for a few years as they just where not selling. Now many people assume apple invented the damn things. :)

Had MS created a very simple version of its initial smart phone they may have had better luck.... they should have done something crazy like buy Nokia 4-5 years before they actually did. Focused on a Black Berry killer.... instead of look its windows on a phone, sure it runs like ass but its windows on a phone. The current apple and android watches feel almost the same way to me as those early MS phones. They don't really do anything all that well and the battery won't even last you a day but LOOK MacOS/Android on a watch. lol
 
The only company with a smart watch with battery life well beyond 5 days was bought out by Fitbit and then everything was fucking axed. This COMPLETELY destroyed my confidence in owning a smart watch because they also axed the servers the watches relied on. So friends that bought them before the axing now have expensive paper weights.

Going to take a lot of work to regain my trust now. On prem or bust.
 
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Jim Kim said:
Simple reason, no one wears watches of anytype anymore, along with price and lack of usefulness.
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To be fair, I do see quite a few folks wearing nice-looking "regular" watches, but that's more as a status symbol than anything else. Brands such as Rolex, Omega, Breitling, Cartier, Rado, Longines, even TAG Heuer (amongst a whole bunch of Swiss brands) seem to command a certain amount of social respect. Kinda like having the "wearable" equivalent of driving a Porsche, BMW, Audi, Lexus, Mercedes-Benz, and so on.
 
Two-way "wrist radios?" Seems like a classic "Dick Tracy Calling" theme ...



0:31 moment.
 
The consumer begins demanding larger screens, so tech companies decide to launch a product with a tiny screen that does less than the smartphone you already own and often needs to tether to that smartphone in order to work optimally, and yet given all that, there are a bunch of "tech geniuses" wondering why no one saw the point? I think a better question is why they even bothered trying in the first place!
 
Bought a brand new Gen 1 Apple Watch (Stainless Steel) for $180 when they were on clearance. Its a great looking device, especially with the link band. Really useful for checking notifications during my meetings and for tracking my workout progress while at the gym. No regrets here and will likely buy an Android smartwatch when I switch this year.
 
I'm a merchant mariner in inland waters, and I needed a timepiece rugged enough to survive the rigors of hull restoration work. You can't exactly leave your smartphone in your pocket while needle-gunning, because the scratchy little rust particles get in everything, especially your pockets. I contemplated getting a smartwatch, but they all looked stupid and ugly like the original Gear S, and they were too expensive for what they were and not rugged enough. So, I got a $20 Timex. Bombproof reliable, waterproof, and you'll shed no tears at all if it gets completely fucked up. More recently, I picked up a Gear S3 Frontier. This one is a little bit different from most. You could run over it with a car and it would probably still work. But, man, I just want a freakin' watch. I don't want a personal trainer and a nanny. I go to check the time, and there are annoying push notifications and calendar alerts to clear, first. I just wanted the damn time. And maybe the weather. It's ridiculous that they'd make you download an app just to have a timer and stopwatch functionality, too.
 
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