Samsung will begin taking preorders Friday for its Gear Sport smartwatch and Gear IconX wireless earbuds, with availability set for Oct. 27, it said Thursday. The $299 Sport watch touts a water-resistant design, 1.2-inch AMOLED display, circular bezel and GPS. The earbuds have 4 GB storage and Bixby voice control technology, it said.
Purchase interest in smartwatches, not yet a mainstream category, is on the rise, said Parks Associates analyst Kristen Hanich, in a Wednesday report. The percentage of consumers interested in buying a smartwatch grew from 3 percent in Q1 2016 to 9 percent in Q2 2017, Hanich said. New models from Apple and Fitbit will drive consumer demand, she said. A migration to 5G cellular networks will create more low-power cellular connectivity options for device OEMs, helping consumers find new use cases for the devices, she said.
Apple acknowledged cellular connectivity problems in its latest smartwatch, due in stores Friday, after a Verge review reported "handoff" problems with two devices. Cellular connectivity was the highlight of the Apple Watch Series 3, announced last week at the company's annual September product unveiling event (see 1709120062 or 1709120054). In a statement, reported by The Verge, Apple said it "discovered that when Apple Watch Series 3 joins unauthenticated Wi-Fi networks without connectivity, it may at times prevent the watch from using cellular." The company reportedly is investigating a fix. Apple didn't comment.
Fossil expanded its Q line of smartwatches at IFA Thursday announcing availability of the Q Venture and Q Explorist ($255-$275), touting personalization via app as differentiators. Android and iOS users can customize the watch faces with information and Fossil designs, said the company. Chief Creative Officer Jill Elliott said Fossil will introduce more shapes, sizes and designs targeting female customers for whom “fashion comes first.” Technology innovations have enabled the company to introduce smaller touch-screen watches, she said, and the watches are Fossil’s first with a fully round touch screen. The watches run Android Wear 2.0 with Google Assistant voice control and come with a wireless magnetic charger. Fossil will deliver the Q Commuter battery-powered smartwatch on Sept. 25 ($155-$175). It has three customizable pushers. All Fossil Q wearables are compatible with Android 4.3 and higher, iPhone 5 and above running iOS 9 and higher, and they connect via Bluetooth, said the company.
Fossil announced at IFA Wednesday what it called a “massive expansion” of its wearables business, with Google continuing to be a key strategic partner via Android Wear 2.0. The expansion is part of the company’s plan to have 300 smartwatches in global markets by year-end (see 1703230057). The company said it doubled its points of distribution and doubled wearables sales in the process. Fossil Group's 2018 touch-screen smartwatches will continue to be compatible with both iOS and Android phones and allow users to customize information to appear on watch faces, create shortcuts to play music, hail a ride or monitor activity goals, said the company. The first Diesel brand smartwatch, Diesel On Full Guard, is available for presale and will be available Sept. 25, Fossil said. The Emporio Armani Connected touchscreen smartwatch will be available Sept. 14, with 11 interchangeable straps and a “saved faces” app. Other introductions include the Michael Kors Access Sofie touch-screen smartwatch, due in stores Sept. 25, and the Misfit Vapor, with heart-rate monitoring, stand-alone music functionality and a water-resistant design, due in October, it said. New designs from Armani Exchange, Chaps, Emporio Armani, Diesel, DKNY, Fossil, kate spade new york, Marc Jacobs, Michael Kors, Michele, Misfit, Relic, Skagen and Tory Burch will roll out over the fall in time for the holiday season, Fossil said.
Close to 9 percent of U.S. consumers 18 and older owned a smartwatch as of June, said a Thursday NPD report predicting 15 percent penetration by 2019. More features and improved capabilities will differentiate smartwatches and contribute to sales growth over the forecast period, with photo and video management and music and home automation control expected to become more prevalent. The highest use cases today are activity tracking, notifications and news updates, NPD said. “Rumors of the smartwatch’s demise have been greatly exaggerated,” said analyst Weston Henderek, who predicts accelerated growth vs. 2016 trends. Early growth projections for the smartwatch were “unrealistic,” said Henderek, saying 9 percent ownership is a “pretty healthy start” for a fledgling market. The next round of product upgrades will lead to more first-time purchases and upgrades for smartwatch owners, he said. Smartwatch penetration is 13 percent among millennials vs. under 9 percent for the overall market, and the market skews 60 percent male, NPD said. Smartwatch ownership is highest (34 percent) among the lowest income demographic, earning under $45,000 per year, it said. “While strong ownership in the lowest income category may seem counter intuitive, it is likely driven by a large number of buyers in the service industry who need a device to check incoming notifications when they can't reach for their phone,” said Henderek. Trends indicate “a natural evolution” of the smartwatch as a “home control hub on the wrist,” he said, and continued evolution of product capabilities will be key to “winning over consumers.” More than 5,000 U.S. consumers ages 18 and older participated in the survey.
Sequent will launch a Kickstarter project Wednesday for the SuperCharger ($149) hybrid smartwatch that’s powered by kinetic energy, it announced Monday. The watch has a kinetic self-charging battery system that’s said to provide an “infinite” power supply. Watch features include a heart rate sensor, GPS tracking and notifications, said the company.
Qualcomm and Zhongshan Readboy Electronics introduced the Readboy W8 kids learning smartwatch at Mobile World Congress Shanghai, they said in a Thursday news release. Kids can use the watch, based on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Wear 2100 platform, to make voice calls, send and receive texts and take and share photos from a built-in 2-megapixel camera. They can interact with the watch by asking questions and receiving answers from a knowledge base of more than 100,000 Q&As, it said. The watch supports indoor and outdoor positioning through a combination of Wi-Fi, global navigation satellite system and 4G location triangulation techniques, they said. The watch, due in September, is based on an optimized version of Android, they said. Qualcomm didn't respond to questions about plans for a similar watch for the U.S. market.
Giorgio Armani teamed up with singer/songwriter Shawn Mendes on a line of Emporio Armani Connected wearables due in stores Sept. 14, said the designer Monday. The collection includes iOS and Android touchscreen and hybrid smartwatches based on Android Wear and using the Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear 2100 processor. Customers can receive messages and notifications on the watches, track activity, choose from eight watch faces and swap out up to 11 straps, it said. They can download third-party apps from Google Play, stream music from Google Play Music and use Google Assistant to check weather and ask directions, it said. The line has wireless charging, but the company didn’t respond to questions about which wireless charging standard. Fossil, which distributes the Emporio Armani smartwatch line, didn’t give pricing but CEO Kosta Kartsotis said earlier this year the company will be “very aggressive” with its smartwatch strategy (see 1703230057).
NPD expanded its retail tracking service to include point-of-sale data on watches, including smartwatches, the company said in a Monday announcement. NPD will draw data from “key channels of distribution,” including jewelry chains, national chains, mass merchants, department stores and independent jewelers, it said. Features like display size, GPS functionality and operating systems “are just a few” of the sales metrics that will be reported for smartwatches, it said.