Five years ago, a collective mania overtook the industry. Nobody could think of a clear reason why consumers needed an expensive "smart" watch when they already had a smartphone in their hand, pocket or bag. What value could it deliver? Even Google didn't seem sure: in its now notorious launch video, a punter used a watch simply to replicate features on their phone. But the industry convinced itself that wearables were another platform, and nobody wanted to be a sad second in this race. So the giants entered the market. Not because they wanted to, but as a hedge. Someone else might take a lead.
As we predicted in 2014, this was a solution looking for a problem. And an expensive one, at that.
Are wearable devices whose OS wakes up only when needed for smart features the answer?
(Score: 2) by toddestan on Friday July 20 2018, @02:21AM (1 child)
They are too big and bulky compared to most traditional watches. And displaying an analog display on a square screen will fool approximately no one.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Friday July 20 2018, @02:47AM
IDK, I've seen big traditional watches. Some have multiple dials, constellations/moon phases. The marketing material [mobvoi.com] for the TicWatch Pro, mentioned in TFA, shows a circular watch with plenty of watch faces that could fool someone from across the room or at least not look like ass. The TicWatch Pro's thickness doesn't look like anything out of the ordinary either.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]