For a while, the entire wearables craze seemed like something that existed purely as hype. While tide after tide of wearables hit stores and shelves, their profits tended to disappear like sea foam. However, the new Apple Watch and the intense expectations raised by consumer interest around it may actually signal the beginning of real growth within this market. A new wave of wearables, emboldened by the interest in recent high profile successes, is making this market into a surefire storm of growth within the consumer sector. There have always been people interested in working with these types of gadgets. But now, for the first time, they are able to actually try them out.
“The technology, desire, and use for wearables is finally here.”
A color screen in 2015
The Pebble smartwatch has been a quiet, behind-the-scenes success. This wearable is seeing a new burst of attention in its new model, which will feature the futuristic technology known as color. Admittedly, to those well-acquainted with looking at color screens, this may not seem like an incredible advantage. However, the length of time you will be able to stare that this particular screen is unique. The Pebble devices have a reputation for long battery life, making them usable in the same way that most people around the world have used watches, in that they don’t plug them in every night before they go to sleep.
Microsoft opens up developer kits
It is hard not to make fun of poor Microsoft for its continued ability to be late to every party. It’s not necessarily the fault of this well-known company that it manages to lag behind the competition every couple of years – it simply hasn’t innovated in the consumer marketplace for some time. Some of the software giant’s more spectacular failures have gone down in the annals of technology history as dismal counterparts to the popular gadgets. Does anyone remember the Zune, for example? Its entry into this particular ring with the Band developer kit previews for the Windows and Android phone systems is a signal that wearables are finally big enough for Microsoft to give them a shot. Yet, there is a chance that the Band will manage to achieve some sort of market share, at which point the new Band kits will actually be useful. It still primarily functions as a showcase for Microsoft’s other hardware, according to ZDNet.
Finally, a technologically-driven solution for lifting.
Workable wearables
One of the ways that wearables are achieving more respectability than they used to is through the rise of their industrial use. For example, a new startup is trying to market a backband that allows those in warehouses to evaluate their lifts as they make them, enabling them to make less damaging lifts as time goes on. This can prevent on-the-job back injuries, which are expensive, painful and completely unnecessary, according to Wired. This is an example of a fitness wearable with a strong use case outside of the hobbyist set. This kind of wearable enables people to, in the course of their regular routines, be safer and more aware of their body.
These three advances in the realm of wearables outside of Google and Apple, the two biggest players in the field, showcase the possibilities that others may find space in this market. Wearables are poised, after several years of stuttering announcements, to arrive as an actual top tech trend for 2015. The technology, desire and use for these gadgets is finally here. Whether or not they stick around for that much longer after they are being used as essentially extensions of people’s phones remains to be seen, but what is clear now is that there will be growth.
