"smart watch" articles

Last week, Swatch Group AG announced plans to enter the smart watch race in the coming months.  The timing of Swatch’s smart watch will likely pit it squarely against smart watch release of another tech heavyweight in Apple. After a number of smart watch launches in 2014, the momentum shows no sign of abating with a slew of smart watch debuts likely in 2015, including from Swatch’s competitors in the watch space such as Tag Heuer.  The details of Swatch’s smart watch...

Apple’s CEO promised new categories in 2014. He promised but has not delivered—the much anticipated Apple Watch will not launch until sometime early 2015. Enters Microsoft. The software giant is rumored to launch its own wearables in 2014, and it did yesterday—not only announced its Microsoft Band, but the device is available in its stores from today. Nice job trying to steal the Christmas from Apple. The bigger news, however, is its Microsoft Health app and the services...

Fitbit launched three new products today, branded as Charge, Charge HR (heart rate monitoring), and Surge . With Charge HR, Fitbit finally brings the heart rate monitoring function to its popular fitness trackers, a nice upgrade to people’s fitness experience. The most interesting one is Surge, which bills itself as a sports watch with GPS, heart rate sensors, and a touch screen for caller ID and text alert. Is it a smart watch? It certainly has some smart features and its...

This morning, activist investor Carl Icahn issued an open letter to Apple, urging the technology innovator to buyback more shares. As an industry analyst, I am more interested in Mr. Icahn’s rationales and assumptions about Apple’s future growth, and there are plenty in that open letter. We agree with Mr. Icahn on many fronts but also disagree with him on several other areas. Here is a quick summary of how I dissect his arguments. What we agree with Mr. Icahn:...

Alongside the headline-grabbing Apple Watch and the new, improved, and enlarged iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, comes the most eagerly-awaited news for those in the payments and retail space: Apple Pay. Apple has sat aside and watched while major competitors got a several-years-long jump on the mobile payments marketplace, only to founder and generate very little traction. As is its custom, Apple strategically assembled all necessary pieces of its planned product first and then waited for...

In a feature-packed event, Apple unveiled its next generation products and new services. while the two iPhone 6 models are impressive from design to specs, the real show killer is the new Apple Watch. Introduced with the familiar “one more thing” tagline, the Watch is a square-sized timepiece billed as “an intimate way to connect and communicate,” and a comprehensive health and fitness monitor. Although it is thicker than I think, the clickable crown on the side is a true...

New research from Parks Associates shows smartwatch sales will reach almost 18 million units worldwide in 2014 and 121 million in 2018. Furthermore, the number of connected digital trackers sold worldwide rose from 6.6 million in 2012 to 13.6 million in 2013 and will double again in 2014 to exceed 22 million. By Parks Associates' estimates, connected trackers will account for 52% of all digital fitness tracker unit sales in 2014 and reach 81% by 2018 (66 million units)....

I left the 2014 Consumer Electronic Show with a WOW for all the wearable gadgets. There may be 200 credible watch brands in the world but the smartwatch sector will easily top that number. The digital watch market is opened up for the tech industry—the intense interest comes from not only large consumer electronic brands such as Samsung, Apple, LG, and Sony, but also brands in the fashion and fitness businesses. Since January, there has been non-stop news of smartwatch development....