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Smartwatch sales are tanking

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Re: Smartwatch sales are tanking

#32
post #22
post #10

Man, I didn't expect Pebble to be down so much. My wife and I have 5 of them between us. The always-on screen and a week of battery life make them much more attractive than most other smartwatches.

If you buy 5 when you only have 4 arms, you might be biased about the pebble's success ;)

[deleted]

Re: Smartwatch sales are tanking

#33
As the comments in that article pointed out - the hassle far outweighs the value. After not wearing a watch for over 20 years, I've had an Apple Watch for about 3 months now (it was a free gift), and honestly, as much as the device is useful, it is a pain - especially when it comes to battery life.

The charge seems to last just enough to fall flat at the most inconvenient times, i.e. when I am just about to leave the house all day, or right when I am about to go to bed (I use the watch primarily for sleep tracking).

Most of the apps on the watch kind of require you to wear it consistently all of the time to give you meaningful data, however current battery life means you end up with large gaps in your human telemetry that your data is always missing vital chunks.

Re: Smartwatch sales are tanking

#34
Can someone make a super-low energy, classic looking watch with GPS? For people with Alzheimer's / Dementia. Could make a kids version too.

They have GPS watches, but the battery seems to last maybe a day or two. My dad isn't going to remember to do that, so I would need to do so on a less frequent basis.

Maybe with some self-charging based on user movement (they used to make self-winding watches)? Keep GPS off until receive (authenticated) SMS message asking it to turn on, then report back position? Or maybe just triangulate position based on cell towers every 15 min...

Re: Smartwatch sales are tanking

#36

It will continue to tank until they become the phone and the phone becomes just another screen (eg. ipod touch, mini tablets).

I honestly thought that was one possible outcome of Project Ara if Google decided that the phone's component inventory didn't literally need to be connected to the base station. It would have made sense to extend Ara communication to BLE, Zigbee or some other low power wireless rather than wired interface. But that dream died with the Ara project itself. Oh well.

Re: Smartwatch sales are tanking

#37
post #10

Man, I didn't expect Pebble to be down so much. My wife and I have 5 of them between us. The always-on screen and a week of battery life make them much more attractive than most other smartwatches.

Ditto—I love mine and am anxiously awaiting delivery of my next one. For me, it doesn't have to replace a smartphone, it just has to make it much easier for me to see and categorize the influx of information. It answers the question of (1) did I just feel my phone buzz? and (2) if so, do I need to read/respond right now.

Since I previously wore watches, I find it natural to wear. And because I never had luxury watches (Seiko was my ceiling), I don't mind that smartwatches aren't fancier-looking. I understand that watch-nevers and timepiece aficionados may feel differently...

Re: Smartwatch sales are tanking

#38

I don't get it. Decades of science fiction depicting Heads-up-Display glasses and wrist-strapped laptops, with people wishing and wishing we lived in such a world. Now here we are and society isn't going in for it. Bluetooth head sets, smartwatches, Google Glass, none of it is sticking. Even though smart phones are becoming cumbersome due to size and inability to use hands-free or even one-handed well. Are we ever go…

> Are we ever going to see a cyberpunk future?

We didn't get to see a steampunk future starting with the early 1900s even though books like Jules Verne's were quite popular at the time (and quite some time after that), so I don't think we're going to see a cyberpunk future anytime soon, if ever. The best that we can do is to re-watch shows like "Akira" and think about what could have been.

Re: Smartwatch sales are tanking

#39
post #22
post #10

Man, I didn't expect Pebble to be down so much. My wife and I have 5 of them between us. The always-on screen and a week of battery life make them much more attractive than most other smartwatches.

If you buy 5 when you only have 4 arms, you might be biased about the pebble's success ;)

It's true! We got one each when they first came out on Kickstarter, then I bought a Steel because it looked nicer, then we both got Times when they came out, then I got her a Round because she liked the look. counts Oh wait, that's 6. And the last one was in December... so actually, we're part of the reason for the YoY decline!

Re: Smartwatch sales are tanking

#40
post #9

I suspect people /want/ a smart watch so they can feel like Dick Tracy and Roger Smith (Anime, Big O). The reality is that the smart watch is little more than a smaller screen attached by wireless personal area network to the real computer; which has a better (bigger, brighter, larger buttons) and more responsive screen. I stopped wearing a normal watch once I had a decent pocket chronometer (a comparatively primitiv…

Mainly because you feel like an utter prat walking down the street talking to your wrist. Had an original G Watch and truly felt like the biggest ck saying "Ok Google, remind me to do XYZ".

It had 3 uses: 1) seeing who's ringing and dismissing calls in meetings where you left the ringtone on 2) being able to read full message threads through the notifications without having to "read" them in the apps (sneaky for Messenger and Hangouts) 3) pretending you're not a tourist by getting navigation directions on the wrist rather than being obvious and looking at your phone.

Suffice to say, I now wear a nice normal watch that I love dearly.

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