Fitbit and Snap partnered to launch the first Bitmoji smartwatch clock face, they said Thursday. The Bitmoji character updates throughout the day based on personal health and fitness data, activity, time of day and weather. The face, free to Fitbit Ionic and Versa owners, is powered by Snap’s developer platform, Snap Kit. Examples of different clock variations users see are a hello wave to start the day, confetti after meeting a step goal for the day, a meditation pose when a user feels relaxed and an umbrella indicating a chance of rain. They called Bitmoji a “virtual friend” that can help motivate, cheer, challenge and celebrate watch owners.
Traditional watches were 56 percent of the U.S. “wholesale watch universe” in 2018, but smartwatches outsold them in Q4 and took 55 percent share of total watch sales, said NPD Tuesday. “We have entered a new watch universe where smart options have become as significant as the traditional,” it said. “Smartwatches are today’s growth engine, but there is still a place for traditional watches among consumers and in the marketplace.”
Casio plans spring availability at $200 of a new connected watch it’s adding to its Edifice line of upscale “timepieces” for men, said the company Friday. The ECB900DB watch can be paired via Bluetooth with a smartphone through a Casio app to “access the correct time in its current location and for up to 300 cities worldwide,” said Casio. Its supplemental charging system “consists of a solar panel system that converts light to electricity and eliminates the need for battery changes,” it said. On a full charge and without further exposure to light, the watch has a battery life of about five months, it said.
Samsung offers its smartwatch owners downloadable watch faces that are “virtually identical” to those of the Swatch Group for the “one purpose” of trading off Swatch products’ “fame, reputation, and goodwill” that were “built painstakingly over decades.” So alleged a trademark infringement complaint (in Pacer) Swatch filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Manhattan. “Consumers and the general public are deceived into believing” that the Samsung smartwatches are actually Swatch products, it said. Samsung has offered more than 30 watch faces for download since December 2016, all in violation of Swatch trademarks, it said. “Consumers would reasonably infer and believe” that Samsung took “care to ensure that the watch faces that they distribute via the Samsung Galaxy Apps Store do not infringe the intellectual property rights of third parties,” it said. Consumers also would “conclude that Samsung had obtained all necessary licenses or consents” from Swatch to use the watch faces, it said. Swatch “in fact” gave Samsung “no such license or consent,” it said. Samsung didn’t comment Monday.
The top smartwatch vendors will see their collective 58 percent market share in 2018 shrink to 47 percent by 2023, Juniper Research reported Tuesday, with Garmin, Huami and Huawei poised to gain ground. Apple is expected to continue to lead the segment in shipments over the next four years, but Huawei will grow faster, at a 20 percent compound annual growth rate. Increased focus on healthcare integration will lead to overall shipment growth over the forecast period, with Apple and Withings among the leaders in the category, followed by Fitbit and Garmin. Smaller players will grow via niche market targeting, use cases or price points, while others deliver premium devices combining fitness, outdoor activity and health features, it said. China shipped 24 million smartwatches last year vs. 19.5 million by North America companies, and it’s expected to continue to widen the gap with lower priced devices. Adoption of hybrid smartwatches, which comprised 22 percent of last year's smartwatch shipments, will be slower than expected as smaller players focus on digital offering apps, connectivity and sensors.
Apple, Samsung and Fitbit dominated U.S. smartwatch sales, with 88 percent for the 12 months ended Nov. 30, reported NPD Tuesday, but traditional watchmakers including Fossil and fitness brand Garmin are adding share. The category gained 51 percent to nearly $5 billion, unit sales expanding 61 percent. Smartwatch sales have gained “strong momentum,” said analyst Weston Henderek, with built-in LTE the “tipping point” for consumers, freeing them from needing a smartphone nearby to receive notifications and messages and to access smart home controls. Sixteen percent of U.S. adults own a smartwatch, up from 12 percent two years ago. It's 23 percent among those 18-34 years old, and health features are expected to increasingly buoy sales of models such as Apple’s Watch 4 series among older consumers. Evolving uses will drive other demand, NPD said, noting 15 percent of smartwatch owners say they control home automation devices using their watch.
Google’s buy of smartwatch IP rights from Fossil (see 1901170049) could lay the groundwork for the eventual launch of a Google-branded Pixel smartwatch, blogged NPD analyst Weston Henderek last week. The move shows Google "is finally getting serious about the development of its Wear OS platform after seeing its share of the smartwatch market fall below 25 percent,” Henderek said. Fossil’s $260 million purchase of Misfit in 2015 (see 1511200053) gave Fossil the IP and engineering chops to roll out a spate of smartwatches and hybrid watches under its various brands, and now Fossil is the No. 1 Wear OS-based smartwatch maker in the U.S. market, he said. Calling it a “near certainty” that Google will integrate the Fossil technology into the broader Wear OS platform for the benefit of all of its partners, Henderek called that a welcome move for the ecosystem, “which has been floundering outside of Fossil.” The analyst blamed issues that have prevented Wear OS-based smartwatch vendors from mounting a competitive attack on Apple and Samsung on Google’s sluggishness updating the platform with new features, functionality and use cases. While Google hopes to strengthen the platform through the Fossil IP and technology purchase and bring new players into its ecosystem, “if the platform continues to struggle, the acquisition of the Fossil IP could help pave the way for Google to enter the smartwatch market on its own with a Pixel branded smartwatch.” A Google spokesperson last week wouldn’t comment on that possibility, saying the companies weren’t providing additional information beyond what was in the news release. Google’s buy of Fossil smartwatch IP “is a win for the entire Wear OS ecosystem,” said Henderek, saying Google is “finally showing greater interest in investing in its Wear OS platform in the face of dwindling market share.” Existing and potential Wear OS vendors are “still likely to be skeptical of Google’s commitment to the space in the short term until they can see if this announcement really does accelerate the development of Wear OS,” the analyst said, which could “lead Google to ratchet up its wearable tech investments even further to accelerate the pace of the Wear OS platform development even more aggressively.” A Google-branded Pixel Watch, if one does materialize, likely wouldn’t launch until late 2019 or early 2020, he said.
Though the overall smartwatch business is experiencing “steady growth,” Apple Watch’s “hold” on smartwatch market share “continues to slip,” dropping below 45 percent for the last six months of 2018, reported ABI Research Thursday. It forecasts overall smartwatch shipments more than doubling to 99 million in 2023 from 40 million in 2018: “As the number of flagship and budget smartwatches continues to grow, consumers are increasingly opting for devices from companies other than Apple, such as Fitbit, Huawei and Samsung.” Apple warned on quarterly results Wednesday after U.S. markets closed, sending it and tech stocks down Thursday (see 1901030047 and 1901030036).
Fitbit announced Monday the 3.0 operating system for its Ionic and Versa smartwatches. The latest generation OS adds more personal “data-at-a-glance,” including sleep info and an expanded exercise view. Quick logging for weight and water intake allows users to take action based on data from the device, said Fitbit, also announcing new apps for the platform: achu health, Couch to 5K, Genius Wrist, MySwimPro, FitBark, Gold’s AMP for Fitbit, Mindbody, Noonlight and TRX. A new Fitbit Exercise application programming interface and open-source developer tools are said to give developers faster, more efficient ways to build health and fitness apps and clock faces for Fitbit smartwatches, with new apps Alpine Snow and Skateboard launching Monday. Female health tracking capability will arrive early next year, it said.
Global smartwatch shipments are expected to rise 28 percent this year to 53 million and increase another 40 percent in 2019 to 74 million, said Gartner Thursday. It forecasts shipments will exceed 115 million in 2022. The Apple Watch’s “relatively stable and higher” average selling prices are bolstering the current smartwatch market, but ASPs are expected to decline to $210 in 2022 from $222 this year, it said. As the smartwatch sector “continues to mature,” said Gartner, it will mainly “subdivide” into: (1) leading CE brands; (2) traditional- and fashion-watch brands; (3) children's watches; and (4) “special-purpose” brands catering to “niche” audiences, such as consumers who require heart monitoring. Though Apple, Fitbit and Samsung have a “comfortable lead ... traditional watch brands such as Fossil and Casio will gain market share by offering more style and choice in their portfolio than the technology brands," said Gartner. "Fashion and traditional watch brands are likely to account for up to 20 percent of unit shipments by 2022."