Wearable Computing & Fashion News - Page 26

Invisible wearables, which are products indistinguishable from non-smart technology, will begin to see widespread adoption in the near future. The surging market could be worth $80 billion per year by 2020, as fashion items could help drive the market.

Physical appearance of products is becoming streamlined to be more aesthetically pleasing, so it won't be ideal for all products. To help drive this market further, expect hardware companies to recruit executives from the fashion and jewelry industries - hoping to create next-generation products that will spur development at a faster rate.

Wearables are packing more powerful hardware, and consumers are seeing a wider number of product choices available. Companies like Apple, Google, Intel, ARM, Intel, Lenovo, Sony, Withings, Microsoft, Qualcomm, and Omate are working with wearable-design teams to make products more visually appealing.

Recently we told you about how Pebble are set to launch a new smartwatch featuring a color display, replacing its black and white e-paper technology.

Thanks to a leaked photo from Pebble's own servers by 9to5Mac, we're able to get a little more insight into how the color display will actually look. This smartwatch is rumored to feature a slimmer body, an updated OS and obviously the color display as seen above. Reports claim that this may be another e-paper display, said to help keep battery life long and stable.

With the full announcement to be completed tomorrow, we look forward to what is to come.

The wearables market will increase 38 percent year-over-year, reaching 70 million units in 2015, according to the Gartner research group. There is high interest among consumers, but penetration rate is still rather low - but could yield double-digit growth in the foreseeable future.

"We expect strong growth in wearables in 2015 with smartwatches and fitness bands and other trackers to reach nearly 70 million units, up 38 percent from 2014," said Annette Zimmerman, research director at Gartner, in a press statement. "However we don't see these devices replacing the smartphone in the next five years, rather they are a complementary device to the existing portfolio of devices."

During the 2015 CES show last month, Intel and other companies demonstrated hardware that can be used in future generations of wearables. Meanwhile, Samsung, Lenovo, Sony and other manufacturers will need to respond once the Apple Watch is released in April.

It looks like Pebble is about to unveil its new smartwatch very soon, with the smartwatch pioneer teasing that it is set to replace its black and white e-paper display smartwatch with a new model that will feature a color display, in just 3 days time.

The new smartwatch from Pebble will reportedly feature a color e-paper-style display that will sport an improved backlight that is also slightly wider. We should see Pebble also include a microphone, which will allow for some voice-activated features. The new display itself will reportedly be embedded into an enclosure that is thinner than its predecessor, but it won't be touch-capable, unfortunately.

When it comes to software, there are rumors that Pebble has been working with webOS on revamping Pebble OS. This should mean we can expect a totally fresh UI with new animations and a timeline view that will give you a better look at your notifications. The new Pebble smartwatch should be the same price, if not lower than its predecessor, which still costs $199.

The current smart wearable band market is led by Samsung, while the basic wearable band leader is Fitbit, according to the Canalys research group. The smart wearable band is considered any device able to run third-party applications, and the basic wearable band is unable to run apps.

"Samsung has launched six devices in just 14 months, on different platforms and still leads the smart band market," said Chris Jones, VP and principal analyst Canalys, in a statement published by Mobihealthnews. "But it has struggled to keep consumers engaged and must work hard to attract developers while it focuses on [operating system] Tizen for its wearables."

Samsung, Fitbit, and other manufacturers will need to keep their sights set on Xiaomi, a surging smartphone manufacturer, which has also shipped more than 1 million non-smartwatch wearable Mi Bands.

Apple will be able to rack up 20 million Apple Watch units sold by the end of the year, according to the CCS Insight analyst group.

Even though an estimated 7 percent of iPhone owners with devices able to support the watch plan to buy the wearable, Apple can expect to quickly become the leading smartwatch maker. If Apple successfully sells 20 million units by the end of the year, the company would control almost one-quarter of the wearable market.

"This highly anticipated smartwatch will create a frenzy of demand, catapulting it almost instantaneously to be the most successful smartwatch ever," according the report. "The current love affair affluent US consumers have with the iPhone guarantees a strong start for the Apple Watch in its home market."

Sony has announced its SmartEyeglass Developer Edition is available for pre-order in the UK and Germany, with sales opening up in the United States, Japan, France, Belgium, Sweden, Netherlands, Spain and Italy beginning next month.

The hands-free device superimposes images into the wearer's vision range, with Sony hoping it will be able to drive interest in the workplace. The company also was careful to create a more aesthetically pleasing product than Glass, which drew a high amount of criticism from potential wearers.

SmartEyeglass also uses a 3-megapixel CMOS image sensor, gyro, accelerometer, electronic compass and brightness sensor - paired with GPS data from a smartphone - to allow custom data to be shared with the wearer.

Apple is anticipating big demand for its Apple Watch smartwatch, asking Asian suppliers to prepare five to six million units ready for launch in April. The company will release three models and wants to ensure there is adequate stock of each one.

At least half of the production numbers will be for the Apple Sport, the company's entry-level smartwatch model, though production plans can be adjusted as needed.

The high-end Apple Watch Edition has seen small pre-orders to date, but Apple will produce at least one million units per month during Q2, according to sources. The watch has an 18-karat gold casing and could be extremely popular in China, as Apple products have become increasingly popular there as of late.

Ryanair wants to give smartwatch wearable owners additional features, such as boarding gate information, digital boarding passes, and post-landing information. A prototype app offering will be unveiled after the Apple Watch launches in the spring, according to company officials.

Additional details about the custom smartwatch offering will be released in the coming months.

"In the future, Ryanair wants to be able to provide information throughout a passenger's journey, from the second you go to bed in a hotel, to when you land and need to find your car, or book a taxi," said John Hurley, CTO of Ryanair, in a statement published by The Telegraph. "People want micro-moments, micro pieces of information."

Wearable supporters promote fitness trackers and smartwatches as valuable tools to help monitor physical activity and general health - but a new study found that most smartphone applications are just as accurate, according to researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine and the Center for Health Incentives and Behavioral Economics at the University of Pennsylvania.

During a trial conducted at Penn, participants wore the following: a pedometer and two accelerometers, three wearable devices, and two smartphones (one with three apps and the other smartphone running one app. Smartphone data apps tracked step counts that were similar to one another, while the wearables provided greater variance.

"In this study, we wanted to address one of the challenges with using wearable devices: they must be accurate," said Meredith Case, Penn medical student and study author. "After all, if a device is going to be effective at monitoring - and potentially changing - behavior, individuals have to be able to trust the data. We found that smartphone apps are just as accurate as wearable devices for tracking physical activity."