With so many brands on deck, why aren't we seeing more smartwatches?
The advent of connected watches suffers from no shortage of hype, from Apple鈥檚 smartwatch being ,聽to Pebble Time鈥檚 fundraising campaign breaking Kickstarter records, to Casio鈥檚 critically acclaimed 鈥渨atch first鈥� approach.
And considering the volume of explainer roundups advising聽which model to pick, you鈥檇 think they鈥檇 be everywhere by now.
But smartwatches are聽聽鈥撀燼nd though our stream of new updates is seemingly constant 鈥� pundits are arguing it鈥檚 likely to stay that way for a while.
The first reason is that the smartwatch is largely still being marketed as a niche or exclusive product. While there is great variety in the market, both price and style-wise, some companies have been specific in declaring how their models will target certain audiences, which can range from to .
On Wednesday, Apple CEO Tim Cook reported most of its products鈥� sales figures but left out the Apple Watch in the company鈥檚 , .
The company鈥檚 also been uncharacteristically the Apple Watch, which is now available in more than 16 countries.
At the same time, the influx of new entrants to the market in recent months can be overwhelming, especially for average consumers still trying to wrap their heads around the initial concept. This year alone, companies from Tag Heuer to Huawei to Gucci to Guess have thrown their hats into the ring, reported tech news website .
But none of this can explain the main reason, which is that many people still don't think smartwatches are worth their price.
Smartwatch technology is widely considered to be in its infancy, with even Casio CEO Kazuhiro Kashio acknowledging the long odds against its upcoming product becoming
鈥淭hey鈥檙e supposed to bring the watch back to prominence as our go-to piece of tech. Sadly, we aren鈥檛 there yet,鈥� wrote 鈥� Jeffrey Van Camp in 2013. 鈥淩ight now, smartwatches are like the annoying little brother of the smartphone. They want to play with its apps, they require its data connection to do almost anything, and they wear out its battery with their constant demands.鈥�
But the smartwatch market may be doing better than we think. Though Apple declined to give detail, consulting firm Strategy Analytics reported Wednesday that the global market for smartwatches in the last fiscal year, with three-quarters of shipments dominated by the beloved iPhone creator, trailed distantly聽by Samsung.
But the primary buyers of smartwatches are still those who enjoy being technology鈥檚 early adopters, reported Jason Perlow last month in a piece called 鈥淲hy smartwatches aren鈥檛 ready for prime time.鈥�
What consumers are waiting on now is a cheaper watch with more reliable Wi-Fi and updates that could eliminate the need to pull out your phone, wrote Mr. Perlow.
Praising Apple Watch and Android Wear as 鈥渢echnological marvels,鈥� he added: 鈥淭here are some interesting apps coming out for each platform, but there's nothing super-compelling yet."
