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from the watch-that-is-essential-to-breathing... dept.
You would probably say the same if you were Eric Migicovsky, who runs smartwatch maker Pebble, whose business model involves selling people computers to wear on their bodies.
Even so, Migicovsky's confidence in the wider trend fuelling that business is notable, at a time when despite Apple and Google's moves into the smartwatch market, there is still widespread scepticism about what exactly these devices are for.
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So, what are smartwatches for? Migicovsky compares the current state of the market with smartphones in 2007, in the early days of iPhone and Android.
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For smartwatches in 2015, those core use cases appear to be activity-tracking and notifications – 90% of Pebble owners use notifications every day, according to Migicovsky – with watch-face customisation also scoring highly in Pebble's case.
On paper the case for something like Google Glass becoming indispensible seems stronger. Is Pebble right?
Original Submission
(Score: 3, Insightful) by dltaylor on Friday July 17 2015, @04:51AM
I don't wear a watch of any kind. Why would I clutter up my arms with a stupidwatch just to see the notifications I can already hear/feel from my phone?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 17 2015, @05:13AM
I used to wear a watch. Prolonged use made my hand numb and caused pain. Thanks to my phone my watch was not as useful anymore so I stopped wearing it years back. My hand got better relatively quickly.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Berky on Friday July 17 2015, @05:28AM
I do not 'wear' a phone.
To me, a (classic) watch is both useful, and stylish.
(Score: 4, Informative) by Tork on Friday July 17 2015, @05:39AM
Slashdolt Logic: "25 year old jokes about sharks and lasers are +5, Funny." 💩
(Score: 2) by Dr Spin on Friday July 17 2015, @08:10AM
It is not so convenient if you are over 40, and your lenses have hardened - focussing on small, nearby objects, and then refocussing on distant objects is not convenient at all.
Also, if you go out and about, you will likely hit the damn thing causing hundreds of pounds worth of damage - typically getting in or out of a vehicle, but other ways of smashing watches exist, hence I gave up wearing one even before smart phones.
[If you are lucky, one day you will be as old as me]
Warning: Opening your mouth may invalidate your brain!
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 17 2015, @08:37AM
Well, I'm over 40, started to wear a watch as a child and ever since wore one, and I didn't smash my watch even once. I also don't have problems to read my watch. Indeed, I can even read my watch if I intentionally blur my view of it. That's the advantage of a classic clock hands display; if you know what direction is up (which you can easily infer from the position of your arm) and in which directions the hands point (which isn't hard to recognize) you know what time it is.
A smartwatch, I don't have a use for.
(Score: 2) by hemocyanin on Friday July 17 2015, @02:55PM
The battery died in my watch and I kept forgetting to replace it, then I lost the watch. That was 1995 and I haven't missed it a bit. There's a clock on everything, everywhere you go.
As for vision, I'm getting closer to 50 and it's getting to be a real bitch -- a shuffle between my distance glasses, my reading glasses (both prescription), or no glasses, depending on size and distance. A smart watch for me would be a never ending headache.
(Score: 2) by Tork on Friday July 17 2015, @03:37PM
Slashdolt Logic: "25 year old jokes about sharks and lasers are +5, Funny." 💩
(Score: 1) by Francis on Saturday July 18 2015, @05:21AM
Serious question. What do you use it for? Whenever I think of those types of devices I can't think of anything that's actually worth paying that kind of money for and dealing with the battery life issues over a normal watch.
(Score: 2) by Tork on Saturday July 18 2015, @05:56AM
I bought the watch as a toy to play with not expecting it to become as useful as it did. Basically it not only means my phone spends a lot more time in my pocket, but it also means I check my email at work far less frequently. If my watch buzzes, I glance at it, and can tell it's one of my coworkers sending around another cat gif and not even need to open my my client.
What I'm describing is a little tiny thing that in my case happens often enough the time savings are worthwhile. If you don't need your messages that fast, you will not find the Pebble Watch terribly interesting.
One limitation of the Pebble Watch is that it cannot show me a full email. On the iPhone it only shows what turns up in your Notification Center. While this suffices, it is a significant limitation. I would love to have an Apple Watch because I believe it'd let me scroll through an entire message. I also think it'd show me photos that come through via text (I get enough of those to be wortwhile), the Pebble can't do that. I think calling Siri from my watch would be handy, I do use that feature quite a bit when I'm using my headphones. And I like the idea that the Apple Watch will some day use wifi to stay connected with my phone if BlueTooth goes out of range.
The problem I have is I see $250 worth of features there, not $400. *Maybe* if they get local apps running AND developers do something interesting with them. Until then I am quite happy with my $130 Pebble Watch. I charge it every Saturday and you can't get a better smartwatch to use in daylight.
Oh... one other thing. I often get telemarketing calls on my cell phone. It's nice to see the Caller ID with a turn of my wrist, I hate taking my phone out for that. I'm not really sure if the bigger benefit to me of this watch is the value it brings or the significant amount of time wastage it saves.
Slashdolt Logic: "25 year old jokes about sharks and lasers are +5, Funny." 💩
(Score: 4, Interesting) by captain normal on Friday July 17 2015, @05:49AM
45 years ago the hip thing to do was to toss away your watch just like Captain America (Peter Fonda) in the beginning of "Easy Rider". Wearing a watch symbolized being tied to corporate America. A slave to the clock, having to turn yourself in every morning and checking out every night. Not being tied to the watch meant you were free and living on your on time.
"It is easier to fool someone than it is to convince them that they have been fooled" Mark Twain
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 17 2015, @05:51AM
(Score: 3, Informative) by davester666 on Friday July 17 2015, @06:27AM
Really? A "good chance to get rolled" by pulling your phone out of your pocket.
First, I hope you also go out and buy lottery tickets, because it's only slightly more likely that you will be robbed in this fashion.
Second, if you live in an area where you are more likely to be rolled for flashing your phone, you are also going to be rolled for your watch. Or your wallet.
(Score: 2) by davester666 on Friday July 17 2015, @06:30AM
oops, quote was wrong "good way to get rolled", not "good chance".
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 17 2015, @07:57AM
(Score: 2) by Zinho on Friday July 17 2015, @02:57PM
It's a lot easier to have your phone snatched out of your hands because you couldn't resist looking at the latest notifications than it is to have a properly fastened watch ripped off your wrist or your pockets picked.
I'm not sure I agree with that, based upon an anecdote from my personal history.
I had a properly fastened watch stolen from my wrist as I walked down the street in a mid-sized Brazilian city I visited as a tourist. A street urchin simply jammed his finger between my wrist and the watch body (leaving quite a scratch, as the watch wasn't very loose) and pulled, shearing the watchband pin. Zero points for subtlety, but quite effective. For a thief willing to replace that sheared pin there's a lot of value in a smartwatch. Also, clever pickpockets are fully capable of removing a Rolex from your wrist without your notice; I'd say that if you're targeted that way your wallet and watch are about evenly at risk.
As a personal security note for those who have this happen to them, don't be stupid like me: I actually chased the kid down and got the watch back. Considering that it was a Timex Ironman watch that I could replace easily the risk of chasing a random kid down unfamiliar city streets was pretty dicey. If he'd had a group of thugs watching his back I might have run into an ambush and lost all the travelers' checks in my wallet for the low price of a club to the head or shiv in the ribs. Especially considering that the watch body got damaged in the process and wouldn't hold a pin properly afterwards, I really should have just let the kid have it.
"Space Exploration is not endless circles in low earth orbit." -Buzz Aldrin
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 17 2015, @03:40PM
(Score: 4, Interesting) by engblom on Friday July 17 2015, @08:44AM
A watch is very useful. If you would wear a good and comfortable watch for one month, you would not want to put it away. I am not talking about smartwatches but normal watches showing nothing more than the time and maybe the date.
A mobile phone requires too many steps for giving the time: Digging it out of the pocket, often the pocket you are sitting on, so even lifting up the butt is a step. Turn it around until it is right in your hands. Squeeze a button to unlock, maybe some gesture also. Lock it again, put it back into your pocket. This procedure you often have to do even while you drive your car and you want to know if you get to your destination in time.
For a wristwatch, you just glance down on your arm and you know if you need to speed up or slow down while driving.
Or take snorkeling as an example: I love to snorkel but as I had to be at a certain place at a certain time picking up someone with car, I needed to know the time while being in the water. Without a watch I would have had to run to the beach, dig out the smartphone and check the time, then back into the water again many times. That would have destroyed the joy of snorkeling that day.
A good watch will give you the time even if you have not had access to electricity for a long time (my watch is an automatic watch without battery). I am sure I am not the only one that have been getting the phone unlocked in the pocket with the camera flash running as flashlight sucking all battery. Even if you wear a normal watch running from battery, the battery often lasts many years, even up to 10 years in Casio watches.
(Score: 2) by Kromagv0 on Friday July 17 2015, @02:07PM
I couldn't agree more. I have a number of very good all mechanical watches and the one I use the most is a Benrus military watch. My only complaint with it at the moment is that it isn't an automatic winding watch. Apart from that it is a very good watch properly jeweled, accurate time (runs 3 seconds +-1 fast a day), got a sapphire crystal to replace the old plastic one, and it is a very simple and clean design with a black face white numbers and has a parkerized stainless steel case. I do have an automatic winding watch but I don't like it as much as it is a bit flashy with the more avant-garde styling found in mid 70's Zodiac watches. I like the pure function and simple styling of the Benrus and really don't like any of the modern men's mechanical watches as they are big, heavy, pay attention to me devices.
T-Shirts and bumper stickers [zazzle.com] to offend someone
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 17 2015, @02:54PM
I'm retired. I had an automatic self-winding watch but it kept stopping.