Advanced technological advancements have changed people’s perception of gadgets. People are no longer satisfied with simple mobile phones from which they can make calls and send messages. People have become so use to a variety of gadgets such as smart phones and tablets that these smart appliances have become the necessity for people instead of a luxury item. This has not only created dependency on appliances but also increased expectations of people from different gadgets. The same is the case with watches whose main purpose was to “show accurate time”. With the passage of time many functionalities were added to simple watches such as a stop watch, alarm, timers, basic calculator, compass, and the ability to recharge with solar energy. But there is no limit to the power of change, evolution and innovation which gave birth to the idea of “Smart Watches”.
These modern ‘smart watches’ are small wearable computers which contain programmable CPU, Bluetooth, accelerometer, magnetometer, map display and game-playing. Some of these smart wearable even have mobile operating systems and can connect to smart phones and run numerous smart apps such as activity tracking; notifications for calls, emails and text messages; and remote control for various appliances etc. Various top notch companies are focusing on this emerging technology and business prospect such as:
Pebbles – A device compatible with both Android and iOS devices is one of the top success stories of crowd funding platform “Kickstarter” where they achieved their initial funding target of $100,000 within 2 hours.
Apple Watch – Apple has announced 3 variants of smart wears namely Apple Watch, Apple Watch Edition and Apple Watch Sport which will be launched in 2015. All of these will be compatible with Apple devices running iOS 8.2 or later.
Samsung Galaxy Gear – A companion device for Samsung Galaxy smartphones and tablets. The device was originally running Android operating system which was later replaced by Tizen in 2014.
Sony Smart Watch – An Android wearable that can sync with various android smartphones.
Toq – An android compatible device manufactured by Qualcomm was released in December 2013.
The idea behind these smart watches is to make technology more personal and accessible. App store of some of these smart wears even have more than 1,000 applications. These devices make communication more convenient, just a tap away. For example a tap will notify that you have received a message or a social media exchange from a friend, or you can reply to SMS message by dictating a message or making a call with the help on the device. Some of these smart devices are capable to track the activity of the user such as movement, sleep and can monitor heart beat etc. The future of these devices is self-learning and predict a healthy daily schedule for user by learning from the regular activity patterns and fitness level to lead a healthy life.
In short, these devices can be used for fun, entertainment, convenience as well as a means to lead a more healthy and productive life.
I really agree with your point that as technology is progressing, so are people’s demands. Gadgets like phones and watches now are so filled with new features that it’s easy to become too dependent on once appliance. I’ll have to explore some of these new, modern smart watches. I’ve never actually seen one of these in real life before, but I’m thinking of getting one. After all, I can’t carry my smartphone around ALL the time, but I certainly can do that with a watch! I have an android phone, so I’m looking into Pebbles and Samsung Galaxy Gear as my most probable buys, but I’m very interested in these Apple smart watches, and I think I may even end up buying an Apple phone in the near future. These watches would be harder to steal than phones, and they’re much more convenient to operate on-the-go quickly. The self-learning and predicting ability is also extremely cool and futuristic! My life will definitely be improved from using some of these products. Thanks for the innovative post!
Android Wear is the best at the moment in my opinion. It’s so much more polished than it was in the summer when I got my G Watch. I bought it the first day. The upcoming Pebble Time might turn the tables though. The Sony Smartwatch 2 I had before my G Watch was really bad and I would not recommend it. The normal Pebble is sweet too and better for some people, but not me. The Apple watch is too expensive for most people.