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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: 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.