Two in three users will make a purchase on a wearable device: Analysing the strategic play

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Marketers and retailers beware: advertising and m-commerce on wearable devices is on its way, and consumers are looking to embrace this next step.

According to survey data from e-commerce provider Avangate released earlier this week, 64% of the 1000 consumers questioned said they were willing to make a purchase on a wearable device. Take into account the figures...

By James Bourne, 26 June 2015, 0 comments. Categories: Brands, Mobile Wallet, Payments, Smartwatches.

Fitbit under pressure from Xiaomi in latest IDC wearable shipment figures

Fitbit retains the number one position in the global wearable device market, but is under stiff competition from Chinese-based firm Xiaomi, according to the latest numbers from IDC.

The figures represent a stark closing in on Fitbit’s market dominance. The San Francisco-based company punts out 34.2% of the 11.4 million wearables shipped in the first quarter of 2015, compared with Xiaomi’s 2.8 million (24.6%).

Xiaomi’s first wearable device was announced in July 2014, which naturally...

By James Bourne, 09 June 2015, 0 comments. Categories: Ecosystems, Fitness, Health Monitoring, Health & Wellness, Smartwatches.

Wearable technology and securing the data: Parallels with the smartphone revolution

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Enterprise employees are looking more and more at using wearable technology in the workplace. A recent piece of research showed that males aged 18-34 and those with children at home are most interested. They either own a wearable or want to buy one – and they want to use it at work.

Unfortunately, it’s not as easy as that. More research papers than you can shake a stick at warn of the dangers of connecting business-critical data to smartwatches. It’s not just the...

By James Bourne, 04 June 2015, 0 comments. Categories: Enterprise, Privacy, Security, Smartwatches.

Wearables: It’s the text on the screen, as much as the device, which needs to be beautiful

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Wearable device manufacturers are proliferating at almost the same rate as wearable devices themselves. One look at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in January, or Mobile World Congress (MWC) in March, with their dedicated wearables rooms, made that plain to see.

With so much competition in the market, on platforms with limited memory, runtime and computing power, gaining an edge is key for OEMs. Increasingly, wearable devices have...

By James Bourne, 02 June 2015, 0 comments. Categories: Applications, Fashion, Smartwatches, Standards.

Pebble's future seems uncertain - despite $18 million in the bank

Despite holding a fond place in my heart as one of the OG smartwatches, it seemed inevitable that Pebble would find itself struggling against the titans of the industry.

Sources close to the company report that employees are unhappy with Pebble's direction as it attempts to fight Apple and Google

With the launch of Google's Android Wear platform, came a serious competitor with far more resources. This is something which has heated-up even more since the Apple Watch launched out of the...

By Ryan Daws, 21 May 2015, 0 comments. Categories: Android, Devices, iOS, Smartwatches.

Gear SDK reveals features of Samsung's next smartwatch

Samsung was among the first to release an Android Wear smartwatch, but the Korean giant has been focusing its efforts on a Tizen-based watch called 'Project Orbis" which is due for release later this year.

Being based on Tizen, the firm would have more control over the experience than the limited changes which can be made to Google's smartwatch OS. The upcoming device has not yet been fully-revealed, but Samsung hasn't been shy about its existence with invites teasing "Get...

By Ryan Daws, 13 May 2015, 0 comments. Categories: Android, Devices, Ecosystems, Samsung, Smartwatches.

Lufthansa flies onto Apple Watch as it becomes latest brand to launch app

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As brands flock to announce Apple Watch specific apps Lufthansa has become the latest company to reveal its launch on the platform.

For those fliers for whom accessing a traditional boarding pass or getting their smartphone out of their bag is too much like hard work their boarding cards and essential flight information can now be displayed on their wrists instead. The Apple Watch specific app connects to the conventional Lufthansa app on iPhones and iPads via Bluetooth allowing...

By Liz Morrell, 13 May 2015, 0 comments. Categories: Brands, iOS, Smartwatches.

Fiksu launches event tracking capabilities for Apple Watch

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With Apple Watch owners having now got to grips with their new gadgets since the watch was released Fiksu has announced event tracking capabilities for the device, enabling brand owners to understand how their apps are being used through the device.

Mobile marketing technology Fiksu enables brands to recognise and track user behaviour on the Apple Watch – which can include any event a marketer is interested in tracking from launches to registrations or purchases.

Since Apple Watch...

By Liz Morrell, 06 May 2015, 0 comments. Categories: Smartwatches, Trackers.

Addapp creates actionable insights from your health data

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Wearables are creating an exciting new era for the health industry, with more data about its users available to ensure our bodies remain in peak condition. The problem is that - aside from telling us to get off our rears or letting us know how far we've run - current devices are creating a whole bunch of data but without much context. 

Addapp wants to change this...

New Salesforce report asserts growth of enterprise wearable adoption

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Research released by Salesforce has revealed that for those who have already adopted wearables, enterprise uptake won’t be far away.

79% of adopters polled said wearables would be, or already are, strategic to their company’s future success, while a further 76% reported improvements in their business performance since deploying wearables in the enterprise. 86% plan to increase their wearables spend over the next 12 months.

Not surprisingly, and with one eye on the upcoming...

By James Bourne, 24 April 2015, 0 comments. Categories: Enterprise, Eyewear, Smartwatches, Workplace.

Consumers hungry for the Apple Watch

As Friday’s global launch date edges ever closer, it seems the excitement surrounding the new Apple Watch has already affected smartwatch sales. A new survey shows that more than half (57%) of prospective smartwatch or fitness bands purchasers have delayed their purchases ahead of this week’s launch.

Gaining mass appeal for the smartwatch may be Apple’s greatest challenge.

Sales tracking figures from GfK show that in the first quarter of this year sales volumes of smartwatches fell 21%...

By Liz Morrell, 22 April 2015, 0 comments. Categories: Devices, iOS, Research, Smartwatches.

Android Wear lands Wi-Fi support, "Always-On" apps, and hands-free gestures

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Fans of the Apple Watch are just starting to get the company's debut into the wearable market, whilst Google has decided to treat customers who own one of the six available Android Wear devices to a tasty new update which brings some major new features to the platform.

Most of the smartwatches available on Android Wear ship with an "Always-On" display to ensure that the...

By Ryan Daws, 20 April 2015, 0 comments. Categories: Android, Applications, Apps, Google, Smartwatches.

Ready or not, adverts on smartwatches will be coming to a wearable soon

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Juniper Research forecasts that wearable advertising spend will reach $68.7 million (£46.5m) in 2018, a huge leap from $1.5m (£1.02m) by the end of this year – and the growth of the Apple Watch will fuel this step up.

It’s a concept which has had marketers licking their lips in anticipation for months – another screen on which to display ads and sell dollars. Many have laid out their ideas for how this shift will take place; Jeff Lawson, CEO of cloud communications provider Twilio,

By James Bourne, 14 April 2015, 0 comments. Categories: Brands, Contextual Data, Data & Analytics, Smartwatches.

The man who hacked his own wristband: A warning to wearable tech owners

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Kaspersky lab security researcher Roman Unuchek has written on how the authentication method in popular smart wristbands allows a third party to connect to the device, execute commands and even extract data.

The worrying findings came after a multiple month investigation, after Unuchek had initially attempted to connect his personal wristband – which remains nameless – and found he could easily connect to his colleague’s Nike+ FuelBand SE.

Using some code already...

By James Bourne, 30 March 2015, 0 comments. Categories: Health & Wellness, Regulation, Research, Security, Smartwatches.

Pebble wants help to strap-up for the future

Pebble helped to kick-off the rising smartwatch market after fans contributed over $10 million via crowdfunding platform, Kickstarter. Even today it still leads powerful competitors from both the Android and Apple camps in areas such as battery life and cross-platform compatibility. 

The team behind Pebble are clearly talented, and their innovation has helped them to stand-out against the goliaths of the industry. With their recently-announced Pebble Time,...

By Ryan Daws, 24 March 2015, 0 comments. Categories: Devices, Smartwatches.

UK users not sure about wearables, but those who are want smartwatches

Wearable technology providers still have a lot to do to convince the general public they need one of their products, according to new research.

A whopping 75% of the 2000 UK adults polled by Hive by British Gas said they couldn’t see how wearable tech would make their lives easier. Almost one in 10 (9%) polled said they thought wearables would make their lives more difficult.

This isn’t the first time Brits have been less than convinced by the pull of smartwatches and eyewear, although back in 2014 it...

By James Bourne, 23 March 2015, 0 comments. Categories: Research, Smartwatches.

Consumer awareness of wearable tech far outstrips product knowledge, survey reveals

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A survey from experiential agency Fizz Experience has found while almost half of UK respondents were aware of the Apple Watch, only one in five had adequate knowledge of the product.

The research, which was conducted before the (second) unveiling of the Apple Watch, found almost half of Britons were willing to spend up to £111 on wearable tech. This...

By James Bourne, 13 March 2015, 0 comments. Categories: Brands, Devices, Smartwatches.

Research: Smartwatches affect drivers more than phones

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Tests conducted by the Transport Research Laboratory (TRL) in Wokingham have shown that reading a smartwatch whilst driving is more distracting than reading a smartphone and results in longer reaction time to perform an emergency manoeuvre.

A driver reading a message on a smartwatch took 2.52 seconds to react in an emergency, whilst using a handheld mobile caused a 1.85 second delay. The TRL also tested...

By Ryan Daws, 13 March 2015, 0 comments. Categories: Android, iOS, Regulation, Research, Smartwatches.

Security: Wearables will be the target of hackers

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During yesterday's "Spring Forward" event from Apple, we saw for ourselves how our smartwatches will be remote controls for the smart home to open doors around the home. The question is, are you concerned this could be exploited by a hacker?

Apple's debut watch, as most current smartwatches, uses both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth technology. The capabilities of the watch and the information it holds...

By Ryan Daws, 10 March 2015, 0 comments. Categories: Bluetooth, Privacy, Security, Smartwatches.