Did CES 2015 herald the 'year of the wearable'?
The annual Las Vegas tech fest is huge. It covers 2.2m net square feet. So attendees walking around the 3,600 exhibitor stands will have covered a fair few miles. No wonder, therefore, that there were so many activity trackers on display. And not just for the delegates themselves, but for their dogs and their children.
The Belty 'tells you off if you eat too much'
CES is, of course, not all about wearable technology. Indeed the 4K TVs and self-driving cars took a lot of the headlines. But it is wearable technology that is generating the most expectation, as everyone believes it will be an enormous market – the question is, when? So does CES give us any clues as to whether 2015 will be the ‘year of the wearable’?
Before answering this question – with its eerily similar sound to the ‘year of mobile’ for which we had to wait so long – it is worth noting how wide the wearable technology market is. Indeed it is several markets, if not all markets – just like 'digital'.
At CES, the range of wearables was clear to see, from the Belty, a self-tightening (or loosening) smartbelt that tells you off if you eat too much; to Rollkers, electric under-shoes to power you around places like CES at twice your normal speed; to the Melo Mind, a white helmet that scans your brainwaves and tries to calm you with soothing music.
But these – if one is being kind – can be called the avant-garde of the tech world. If one is being a bit more honest, they are the lunatic fringe. And if it’s going to be the year of the wearable, there needs to be more socially acceptable wearables around. With Google Glass wearers not being called ‘explorers’ as Google wanted, but ‘glassholes’, the pressure is on to not make the wearer look too awkward.
Wrist-worn devices have been leading the way in wearable technology. In particular, activity bands have the biggest awareness and take-up. But these are nearly always bought by people who attend gyms and are therefore committed to fitness spend and quantifying their progress. And judging by the MAMILs (Middle Aged Men In Lycra) who cycle past my house, they are not so fussed about their appearance.
But with a likely flood of very cheap imports on their way, the market for generic activity trackers is about to get very tough. Something a lot of the exhibitors at CES should take heed of.
Some have done so and are aiming to move up-market. Misfit, with its Bloom necklace, has led the way with attempts at fashionable activity trackers and at CES it unveiled the product of a partnership with Swarovski that hides its Misfit Shine tracking device behind a large purple crystal. FitBit, the pioneers of the activity tracking space, unveiled gold and silver bracelet trackers following its collaboration with Tory Burch. Even Intel is making a play in this market launching at CES with its MICA (My Intelligent Communication Accessory) bracelet.
The question remains, though, whether non-gym goers will want to invest in such devices that are really tech over-layered with fashion, rather than the other way around.
Smartwatches illustrate the issue even more clearly. They have generally been rather large and cumbersome devices. A bit like the original wearable, the first wristwatch, which was given as a gift to Queen Elizabeth in 1571. It was so large, it was referred to as an ‘arm watch’.
At CES we saw Sony upgrade its smartwatch with the Sony Smartwatch 3, adding some metallic allure to its original devices. Withings, which has led the way with its stylish looking Activite watch, continued on that theme with the Activite Pop. Although, going cheaper is possibly not the right strategy in the world of fashion. Overall, though, the smartwatch sector though has been put in paralysis by the premature announcement by Apple of its watch that won’t be out until some time later in 2015. Its absence from CES left that sector feeling a bit flat.
So does that mean we have to wait for Apple’s permission to declare 2015 the ‘year of the wearable’? I don’t think so. The Apple Watch may look nice, but its flaws are the unseen factors that I believe will define whether this year is indeed going to be the ‘year of the wearable’. The Apple Watch, as far as it has been explained, tries to pack a smartphone into a watch, demanding high processing power and battery consumption. This will mean it is likely to need recharging every 24 hours. Not a behaviour we are used to with our watches.
These ‘unseen’ factors are far more important in deciding whether 2015 is the ‘year of the wearable’ or not. It’s not about how pretty it looks on your wrist, your head or your foot. The real factors that will liberate wearables from accusations of awkwardness include battery life, processing power and ability to connect to the wider internet of things. That’s not necessarily glamorous or fashionable. But it is essential.
The real promise of wearables is that they make our lives better, easier, more seamless. Above all it’s the way wearable technology can weave into the fabric of our lives. And CES showed some real glimmers of hope of this.
The UK’s Cambridge Consultants is literally trying to weave its way into our lives with its smart fabric, XelfieX, that turns garments into active motion sensors. AmpStrip is a plaster you stick to your skin under your clothes and use to measure your heart rate. Glagla Digitsole is seeking to change the way people can experience winter walking by not only tracking steps, but heating up feet at the same time.
So did CES 2015 herald the 'the year of the wearable'? Not quite. But it pointed the way to where companies need to look. Not at the flashy attention grabbers, but at the quiet innovators.
Some of these will just look like great products, rather than technology. Others will not look like anything at all, as they are a subset of wearables, that could be called ‘invisibles’. Perhaps it will turn out to be the ‘year of the invisible’ instead.
Martin Talks is founder of the wearable technology company 10x Army. Follow them on Twitter @10xarmy