96 GlobeAsia May 2013

Technology

ately, smartwatches are everywhere. While they have been around a while, they’ve always been somewhat of a niche

product, never gaining widespread acceptance. All that changed one sunny morning in 2012 when Pebble announced that it had raised $15 million on crowdfunding website Kickstarter.com.

The bell-bottoms of the digital age, it appears that smartwatches are suddenly hot again. The wisdom of the crowd has penetrated corporate halls all over the world and some big names have taken an interest. Reports suggest Apple, Google and Samsung all have

smartwatches in the pipeline.Certainly, the definition of a

smartwatch is in flux somewhat. Some smartwatches are nothing less than miniaturized cellphones. Other watches essentially tether to smartphones and transfer data back and forth via Bluetooth. While the approach has varied somewhat depending on the manufacturer, many companies have tried and failed at smartwatches in the past.

Samsung for example has already released two smartwatches, one in 1999 and another more polished one in 2009 (which was inexplicably released only in France). LG, for its part, released a similar offering, the GD910, in 2009 to

tepid response. Starting in 2002, even Fossil got into the game, producing several smartwatches, some based on Microsoft’s now-defunct SPOT technology, and others based on technology developed by Palm.

Most recently, Fossil and even Sony have been testing the market with Bluetooth-enabled watches. Sony’s new iteration of Liveview, the Liveview 2, was popular but also failed to gain widespread adoption. With all these failures, the question is why now? What will be different this time around?

 The market has evolved Several factors have aligned that indicate the time is right for su

ha

di

Smartwatches are back! And this time it’s going to be different

May 2013 GlobeAsia 97

By Jason Fernandes

smartwatches to finally enter the mainstream. The fact is that the market has matured. The existence and widespread use of smartphones has interestingly changed the rules, paving the way for smartwatches.  

Where there may have been a certain resistance earlier to be constantly connected even during leisure time, smartphones have made this acceptable and even expected. The proliferation of smartphones has even solved technical issues with smartwatches.

While previously these watches would need to fit all the technology they required in an extremely small footprint, today they can tether themselves to a phone, essentially behaving as a dumb terminal where the phone does the bulk of the processing and the watch merely displays the information. This would not be possible without smartphones and the benefit of the widely used Android and iOS platforms allowing for greater, almost universal compatibility.

 The technology has maturedOne of the biggest issues that the smartwatches of old had to deal with was the lack of decent battery technology. While the previous generation had to be charged almost every day, present technology allows watches to last several days without charging. The implementation of an E-paper display and its low power consumption in the Pebble for example, allows the watch to run for almost a week without requiring a recharge.

Newer generation smartwatches also have the benefit of low-power Bluetooth 4.0, which allows the watch to communicate with a smartphone with very little impact on the latter’s battery. The fact that recent flagship phones have much greater battery capacity than their predecessors is also a factor that bodes well for the smartwatch.

Display technology is getting betterAdvances in display technology have led to some interesting possibilities. A few years ago Philips demonstrated a rollable e-ink display at CES. Not to be outdone, the next year Sony also unveiled a 2.5-inch screen with a flexible display at the same conference.

Even LG has joined the fray, developing e-paper displays that are lighter, thinner and more flexible. Most recently Plastic Logic announced that it is developing what it hopes will be a 1mm-thick color e-paper display and indicated that some “big names” are interested in the technology.

These display advancements, in the hands of a capable designer, could well result in some very beautiful products. There have also been quite a few advancements in gesture-controlled technology such as the Leap motion controller and, should this technology be integrated into a watch, it would solve many sticky issues like navigating through a complex menu system without having to be extremely precise using a tiny touchscreen.

Gesture control, if widely adopted in smartwatches, would also eliminate physical buttons, which have by this point run their course and deserve the old yeller treatment.

The devices are better designedNo matter how high-tech the watch, ultimately a watch is essentially an accessory and nobody is going to wear

an ugly watch. Just glancing through the failed smartwatches so far it’s easy to see why they never got anywhere. They’re just plain ugly. The Samsung SPH-WP10 is such an eyesore that it’s a wonder how it ever got beyond the concept stage. The watch, released in 1999, looks literally like somebody took an old Nokia style cellphone and put a strap on it. Nobody wants to wear the 2012 equivalent of a Casio calculator watch.

The newer attempts at smartwatch-es are much more visually pleasing. Save for the rubber watch band, the Pebble watch is a marvel of simplistic design. The watch sports a beautiful curved face with a bright sunlight-readable e-ink display that allows for customizable watch faces. Even the Sony Ericsson MBW 200, while tech-nologically dated, would be completely at home in a boardroom or some other formal occasion. Some very big players are interestedThe fact that Apple is working on a watch is also a factor that cannot be ignored. Under the tutelage of Johnny Ive, Apple has always excelled at product design. Apple has a massive budget and access to the latest display technologies. It stands to reason that Apple would raise the bar in this category. Any smartwatch released by Apple would likely also feature Siri integration, allowing for some very interesting Dick Tracy-like features.

Google, never one to be left behind, is also rumored to be working on its own smartwatch. According to a recent article in the Financial Times, Google has assigned its Android team to work on the Google Smartwatch project, indicating that the watch will be deeply integrated with the Android operating system, possibly extending and enhancing its functionality.

Given the massive penetration

The existence and widespread use of smartphones has paved the way for smartwatches.

98 GlobeAsia May 2013

Technology

of Android in the global market, a watch such as the one Google is contemplating would likely have a significant impact on the market.

Samsung has also confirmed that it is working on a new smartwatch that would almost certainly be designed for deep integration with its current line of Galaxy phones. In an interview with Bloomberg, executive vice president of Samsung’s mobile division Lee Young Hee recently said that the company is “preparing products for the future, and the watch is definitely one of them.”

Of course, as mentioned above, Samsung previously entered the smartwatch business but the company has only recently gained the kind of clout in the mobile devices industry that forces people to take it seriously.

According to the latest information available from IDC’s mobile tracker, Samsung has the largest market share for smartphones globally. If it was to make a smartwatch now that complements their suite of devices, they could reasonably expect massive sales.

That Apple, Samsung and Google are taking this seriously is a strong indication that things will be different this time around. The projected revenues in the smartwatch market are just staggering. According to ABI Research, smartwatches and other wearable computing devices will soon “explode in popularity.”

The same report, published this year, predicts that the market will

grow to 485 million device shipments annually by 2018. With these numbers, it’s no wonder that the big guns are taking this very seriously, and it would behoove analysts to sit up and take notice.

 Smartwatches don’t need to replace the cellphoneMany industry watchers make the mistake of questioning whether a smartwatch, with its tiny screen, could actually replace a cellphone. The premise is flawed however, because smartwatches really don’t need to be a replacement. A smartwatch and a cellphone could do very well as complementary devices.

It was only recently that the cellphone evolved from something people merely used to make phone calls into something that people use to surf the web, take and upload pictures and watch movies. It stands to reason therefore that there is a market for an intermediate device that provides the basic functionality of text messages and emails, without one having to pull out one’s cellphone at every opportunity.

The oversized cellphone or so-called “phablet” phenomenon is an example of this usage demographic. The main reason people buy phablets is not for the email or text message functionality. The phablet’s value proposition is that it enables people to browse the web and watch videos on a big display, something that wasn’t even expected from a cellphone until recently.

One of the biggest criticisms of these phablets is that they’re not easy to hold in one’s hand and look a little silly when held up to one’s ear. The smartwatch would be a cure for this because it could (through the use of a headset) enable people to keep their phablets or tablets in their briefcases while continuing to have access to their most commonly used features, namely calling, texts and email, with the flick of their wrist.

This would likely cause a paradigm shift, pushing customers into the phablet market and encouraging bigger phones, since they would no longer need to be held in one hand or held up awkwardly to one’s ear.

At the end of the day, watches are almost by definition ornamental. It seems ludicrous that people are debating whether smartwatches will take off or not. The fact that smartwatches also provide a host of other features besides telling the time ensures that it’s almost a given that they will become popular, if only they quit looking so ugly.

As a result of improved technology, the next generation of smartwatches will be more like regular watches – visually-pleasing objects of desire worn as accessories. In a few years it will be almost inconceivable that any major watch manufacturer will release a watch that isn’t ‘smart’ or connected in some way. This is simply the natural evolution of the timepiece.

Soon, the chronograph will come to be thought of as a quaint relic of yesteryear, the way we look at pocket watches today. It is fitting that the future will finally be heralded by a timepiece. Yogi Berra put it best: The future ain’t what it used to be.

Jason Fernandes is a tech commentator

and the founder of smartKlock.

In a few years, it will be almost inconceivable that any major watch manufacturer will release a watch that isn’t ‘smart’ or connected in some way.