The smartphone sales boom may have lots of room to run worldwide, but in the developed world the explosive growth of smartphones is slowing and the makers of high-end devices are looking for new opportunities. The $60 billion dollar wristwatch market seems like a logical choice to both Apple and Samsung. It’s a global market almost as big as the mobile phone market, and if phones are an indicator then consumers will be willing to spend more for a watch that can do more.
Apple has long been rumored to be at work on a “smart watch,” and now Bloomberg is reporting that Samsung is in the game as well. The company’s executive vice president for mobile said a wristwatch is one of several new products his unit is developing. Samsung is the now the world’s largest maker of mobile phones, and is also the leader in the smartphone segment.
Presumably both Apple and Samsung are trying to create watches that will connect to smartphones so that consumers will be able to get data and potentially even make calls from their watches. For Apple, adding another “idevice” to the family could increase brand loyalty; already many families are deciding to stick with Apple products so that their new devices will work with the phone or tablet they already have.
Samsung’s recent launch of the Galaxy S4 is clear evidence that the company is more focused on its own user interface than on Google’s Android operating system, which runs all Galaxy devices. The Korean giant might want to create a watch that only connects to other Samsung devices, but this could be a challenge since most Samsung devices use Bluetooth chipsets made by other vendors. And if Samsung makes a smart watch than works with other Android phones and tablets, it could access an even broader market.
One smart watch is already on the market – the Pebble wristwatch has been shipping for several weeks now. Manufactured in China, the Pebble was conceived in Silicon Valley and was financed on Kickstarter. Interested consumers paid for their watches before production started, enabling the company to make the watches without selling a large portion of Pebble to venture capitalists.
The Pebble watch connects to both iOS and Android phones. Stephen Ambruzs demonstrates both in the review below.
