Have wearables worn off already?

Activity trackers and GPS watches were heavily discounted with bargains to be had on the Apple Watch, Jawbone UP3, Garmin Forerunner 220, Misfit Shine and Samsung Gear S2. However, this discounting has led to some to suggest that the technology is not living up to the hype surrounding it, and doubts have arisen as to whether the technology will develop beyond niche products.

Wearables are still in their relative infancy of course - after all Apple’s first watch has only been on sale for seven months - but there are already some early warning signs around the technology’s future. As well as the Black Friday discounts, and despite sales growth, penetration is still low. Indeed, Tag Heuer’s announcement of its first smartwatch earlier this month was met with the caveat that customers will be able to trade it in for a mechanical version after two years, which is not exactly an endorsement for the technology.

The question for many is whether a piece of technology that sits on your wrist as opposed to your pocket is a big enough selling point. Indeed recent analysis of Google search data has revealed that the Apple Watch is fourth on the list of searched for ‘i’ products - not only behind the iPhone and iPad, but even the 14 year old iPod! Despite being the bestselling smartwatch in history, the analysis also predicts that the Apple Watch will fall some way short of its 2016 sales goal of 24 million units.

As mentioned, it’s still early days for wearables. They will undoubtedly improve so it’s way too early to write them off just yet. However, for many people they have got some work do to move beyond a novelty product.