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【51CTO.com Quick Translation】 The failure of smartwatch products is mainly due to a huge mistake made by the industry. Its promotion started with individual consumers rather than enterprise users, and this original intention of marketization has put the smartwatch industry in a difficult situation.
Three years ago, smart watches began to become a mainstream electronic product. Its main function is to provide smartphone notifications and fitness companions on the wrist. Other functions include news updates, calls, alarms, emails, viewing pictures and videos, navigation, controlling music and home automation. However, the early development of smart watch products was not smooth.
Motorola's smartwatches have been withdrawn from the market, and Pebble and Jawbonge have also stopped their smartphone businesses. Intel has acquired some wearable device companies and shut down their smartwatch and fitness tracker businesses. Fitbit recently said that its smartwatch sales this quarter were 2.3 million fewer than the same period last year.
About three and a half years ago, Google launched the Android Wear platform, which was open to any smartwatch company and provided standardized open platform functions, which made a sensation in the industry at that time. Today, the smartwatch industry is dominated by Apple's Watch OS, Samsung's Tizen is second, and Android Wear ranks third.
According to the survey, in the first quarter of this year, Apple smartwatches accounted for 57% of the market share, Samsung and Google accounted for 18% and 19% of the market respectively, and Apple is expected to continue to lead by 2021. Although these companies are reluctant to disclose data, it is likely that most or all smartwatch manufacturers are losing money. However, the top executives of Samsung and Apple do not seem to care. They support the construction of smartwatch platforms and are optimistic about its market potential.
Consumer indifference <br /> Industry reports say that as of December last year, only 15.6% of consumers in the United States owned smart watches, an increase from a year ago. Even fewer consumers in Europe buy smart watches, with a market share of less than 10%. Behind these figures lies a more pessimistic fact, that is, many consumers do not wear their smart watches after buying them, but leave them in a drawer to collect dust. What is going on?
Smart watches have not entered the mainstream consumer market as manufacturers expected. There are many reasons, either the watch is too bulky, too expensive, or has limited functions and cannot meet people's needs, etc. Only a few wearable device enthusiasts can accept it. On the other hand, we need smart watches that are thinner, more functional and cheaper. The smart watches that are flooding the market now seem bright and beautiful, but in fact, they still have problems such as bulky design, lack of intelligence and high price, so they still cannot be sold.
Montblanc released a titanium watch at the brand summit. It still looks like a traditional watch in terms of style and size, but it has some smart features and costs $980. The watch can be made of expensive titanium and is equipped with Android Wear 2.0 system. It can display notifications from smartphones and allow for minimal responses. The best feature is that its thin and light design does not look like a smart watch.
Tag Heuer, another traditional watch manufacturer, has also launched a smartwatch called Modular 45, which costs between $1,700 and $6,750, so few people are interested. The smartwatch launched by luxury brand Louis Vuitton is exquisitely crafted, has few functions and costs more than $2,490.
Some smartwatch manufacturers also target different interest groups. For example, Fantom's smartwatch is designed for football fans and will continuously push updates on your favorite team. Children's watches include Kidizom DX2, doki watch, etc., which can maintain real-time communication and positioning functions between parents and children.
Some companies have developed new functions for traditional watches. A Swiss watch company has launched a $219 self-charging smartwatch that can charge the battery through kinetic energy movement, but its smart function is only to display mobile phone notifications.
Of course, in terms of function realization, smart watches are catching up with smartphones. The upcoming latest Apple smart watch LTE version is said to be able to make calls and get data directly without connecting to a mobile phone. Apple's LTE watch, including Huawei's second-generation smart watch, can realize the main functions of current mobile devices.
A smartwatch called Arrow can provide the camera function of a smartphone, and the lens can rotate around the bezel, so it is very convenient to take pictures. And the smartwatch produced by Martianm Voice can realize the function of talking to a virtual assistant. These innovative functions are worth looking forward to, and consumers hope that the advantages of these brands can be integrated so that we can buy a powerful smartwatch.
IFA Conference *** News <br /> The IFA conference in Germany will announce some new news in the smartwatch industry in the near future. Samsung is expected to release some new watches, including 2 Pro and Sline. Sony and Huawei also have new moves. Garmin's Vivo Active3 and a series of fashion brand watches will also be released in the near future. The new Apple Watch will meet everyone at the Apple conference in mid-September. The launch of these new products will definitely be amazing, but it is expected that they will still not be ideal in terms of thickness, size, function and price. The overall smartwatch manufacturing technology has not yet reached our ideal level.
***'s mistake: not targeting the enterprise market <br /> Over the years, when high-tech entered the smartphone industry, there was a wrong assumption that smart watches were positioned as a marketable consumer product rather than an independent smart product that focused on R&D and functions. If companies could develop smart watches like they develop smart glasses, focusing on developing functions first and then marketing them, it would be much better.
There are rumors about Google Glass: Google wanted to market Google Glass to the consumer market, but failed. Then the story goes that Google changed its product strategy and began to increase its research and development efforts on Google Glass for the enterprise market. In fact, Google's R&D lab has begun a new test plan to complete the design of smart glasses data management programs, so as to achieve better functions of smart glasses.
This shift in market strategy tells Google that the state of smart glasses technology is not yet ready for individual consumers, but it can be launched to enterprise users. If the performance is stable, even if the appearance is bulky, it can be accepted by enterprise users. So Google turned its glasses research and development to Google Glass Enterprise Edition, hoping to see the light of day.
This is the change that is also happening in the smartwatch industry. Big companies like Apple, Samsung and Google have all started the "expedition plan" of smartwatches, that is, they have started to develop functions for enterprise users, and the personal consumer market is considered later.
Unlike viewing social network information and heart rate monitoring, smart watches developed for enterprises should have biometric security and key access, GPS application, business card information viewing and data transmission functions required by some companies. Unlike individual consumers, enterprise-level consumption, including manufacturing, logistics and some other companies, can accept the bulky appearance, limited functions and expensive prices of watches. Therefore, some enterprise-level smart watches need to add business applications, which take precedence over applications for personal services.
It can be said that the smartwatch industry made a strategic mistake, lost both individual and enterprise user groups, and missed the best opportunity for the development of smartwatches. Watch manufacturers are losing money and even going bankrupt. Consumers think that smartwatches do not meet their needs, and enterprise users do not see the use of smartwatches. If the smartwatch industry can first target the enterprise market like Google Glass and popularize it at this level, I believe the results will be much better.
By Mike Elgan
Original link: https://www.computerworld.com/article/3219854/wearables/why-smartwatches-failed.html
Translated by Liu Nina
[Translated by 51CTO. Please indicate the original translator and source as 51CTO.com when reprinting on partner sites] |
