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Early Adopters of Wearables Have an Advantage?

Nov 4, 2012
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First Name
Jessica
Latest article: Do you think that early adopters of wearable technology have an advantage over those who don't?

I'm not just saying those who are sporting an Apple Watch...

What comes to mind for me are those who are tracking their sleep, physical activity, and have the right apps connected to their wearable so they only get the right notifications to properly prioritize their productivity (say that 10 times fast).

What does NOT come to mind are those who are in 79 FB chat groups and have Twitter notifications for all their 88 closest friends.
 
I did quite a bit of research, reading and analysis into these fitness trackers, both from a psychology and technology perspective and the summary of what I found is as follows:
  1. People love information and numbers, but they rarely (if ever) act based upon them. Beyond increasing their number of steps, very very few people actually experiment with different levels of food intake or activity and how it impacts their sleep.
  2. All the heartrate sensors in wearables are crap. None of them are accurate enough unless you're wearing a chest strap bluetooth connected one. Since much of the other data they provide piggybacks off your heartrate, most of the numbers are inaccurate
  3. Half the people that buy these products stop using them entirely less than a year after they get them and many more stop using the data far before then (ie: they use it as a watch, but stop watching steps)
FitBit has tried gamification and competitions. Others have tried phone notification integration. Razr tried entry level units. Garmin tried highly accurate trackers. Nothing has really "worked".

When it comes to the Apple Watch, Ed is right - you're paying a high price now for something that will be improved upon in 12-18 months if not replaced entirely with new bands, sizes and integrations.

I'm hopeful that Android watch can integrate properly with iPhone - I like some of their units in the $150 range.

http://endeavourpartners.net/white-papers/
 
@Jeff Kershner will probably have a lot to say in response to that Craig. I've never met someone so addicted to those things. Admittedly, I fit in #3.

I am looking forward to the Apple Watch maturing. Usually I adopt things very early, but haven't felt the desire to pull the $400+ trigger on that watch yet. Reviewers claim the watch makes all the sense in the world, but the technology isn't used widespread enough to justify the early price of entry.

Too bad Google Glass fell off the earth. Always thought that had potential....if they could ever get the styling better integrated into normal life.
 
I have the Samsung Galaxy watch and like it quite a bit. The main reason is because I'm not grabbing my phone every 10 mins looking at new emails and alerts or who's calling. It's just a flick of the wrist now. All the other stuff as far as taking pics or tracking steps, I don't use. I'm sure that appeals to some folks. Just not me. I do agree with @Alex Snyder about Google Glass. I am curious if you guys know of any of the professional players or teams that use wearable technology with their training. I would love to hear some feedback from those guys.

On a side note, I'm now permanently scarred for the rest of my life with that pic that @Jeff Kershner posted in that article. LMAO!!!!

SMART JORTS?!?!?!

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On a slightly deeper level, while I feel that wearables don't have a tremendous amount to offer automotive marketers, from what I've seen, but I do see both "Beacon Technology" and "Augmented Reality" offering real potential to marketers in the near-term.
 
Anything that requires opt-in is getting hard and harder to see mass adoption.
Beacons are tough because as soon as people start using them the feature on the phone will be turned off - nobody wants popups on their phone everytime they walk part a store or onto your dealership lot.

I've seen 3 failed beacon lot integrations so far.
 
Apple Watch for Early Adopters? lol

Wearables have been around for a few years and from what I have seen of the apple watch it definitely a much more polished option. It is version 2.0 of wearables, the first were devices like the fitbit etc that didn't have a OS to speak of and just showed basic information. The Android ware stuff that followed I would consider beta of version 2. I can't wait to see the Android stuff that will blow the apple watch out of the water.

As far as having an advantage in the business workplace, no. It saves a few seconds here and there but the cost of setup and learning curve is still high. They are still a novelty and it will be a long time before they are worth the added expense.