Isabel Finch and Jamie Doward 

Apple Watch brings wearable tech to the mainstream – in time for Christmas

Sales boom forecast as smartphones in your pocket link to stylish multifunctional devices worn on wrist
  
  

Dree Hemingway wears Intel's Mica smart bracelet at Opening Ceremony's SS2015 after party
Dree Hemingway wears Intel's Mica smart bracelet at Opening Ceremony's spring summer 2015 after party in New York. Photograph: Taylor Hill/Getty Images Photograph: Taylor Hill/Getty Images

It is still months away but already there are predictions that, for the tech-savvy, the only gift this Christmas will be a wearable band.

Sales of the bands – which allow users to perform functions from paying for a coffee to monitoring their health or sleep patterns – are predicted to increase by 129% next year as more than 43m devices are sold around the world, according to tech analysts Canalys. Of these, 28m will be "smartbands" with the ability to connect to third-party devices such as tablets or iPhones.

Experts say the Apple Watch, unveiled by the company's CEO, Tim Cook, last week, will be a key driver in the market. The watch boasts a range of health and fitness functions and also has a mapping device. "The arrival of Apple is so significant," said Jason Jenkins, director of content at tech news site CNet. "The company essentially defined what the modern MP3 player, smartphone and tablet computer looks like and what their functions are. Everyone is looking to Apple to repeat the same trick with smartwatches."

In the past, some wearable bands were seen as clunky or unattractive. But Daniel Matte of Canalys believes Apple has learned from the mistakes of earlier versions: "Apple has produced a smartwatch that mass-market consumers will actually want to wear."

In a sign of how bands are entering the mainstream, the fashion world is also becoming interested. Chipmaker Intel revealed the Mica (My intelligent Communication Accessory) smart bracelet at New York Fashion Week last weekend in partnership with fashion house Opening Ceremony.

"The fact that Apple are making [a smartwatch] will generate sales which will in turn lead to smartwatches and wearables in general looking normal and desirable," said Matt Egan, editor in chief at UK tech magazine TechAdvisor. "Expect to see a lot of people wearing both a traditional watch and a smartwatch, when this craze kicks in."

He predicted that the emergence of competitors to Apple, which will not launch its watch until next year, will push down prices of smartwatches and basic bands. "It is aimed at people with a disposable income who are style- and fashion-conscious," Egan said. "They will snap up the Apple Watch, which will in turn create a market for cheaper alternative smartwatches."

"The basic band vendors, such as Fitbit and Jawbone [activity trackers worn on the wrist], will enjoy the advantages of their lower pricing for the immediate future," said Chris Jones, principal analyst at Canalys.

"Eventually, however, stronger smartband competitors to the Apple Watch will likely emerge and push smartband pricing down, threatening the basic bands. This market will undergo disruption similar to that suffered by feature phones when smartphone prices fell."

Egan said computer and phone manufacturers were "desperate" to add a new category of device to generate new revenues. "Smartwatches are perfect because they also tie into particular brands of phone, which means you will upgrade them as you upgrade your phone, but also you will stay loyal to a particular brand of phone," he said.

"Which is not to say that there is no merit in wearables in general or smartwatches in particular. Smartphones are brilliant, portable computing and communications devices. But they have taken us back to the era of the pocket watch. You have to take a device out of your pocket to get at all that great information.

"The reason the dumb watch has remained a constant for decades is that it is almost a perfect form factor. Convenient and only as obtrusive as you wish it to be. Getting the information from your smartphone on to your wrist is highly useful."

Jenkins said consumers need to be cautious about the hype around the devices. "Wearable tech is niche right now – a growing one, but a niche nonetheless. There are some good fitness products out there that measure the number of steps you take each day and measure it against the goals you set yourself, for example. But this sort of portable health nanny is a long way from the mainstream.

"It's still very early days for the whole sector: existing products can be fiddly to use, and in the case of smartwatches, no one has really figured out what they are truly meant to do."

 

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