Check out our two stories in July on the Wearable Tech Conference available here and here.
This summer I had the pleasure of attending the Wearable Tech Expo (#wearabletechcon) including the Fitness & Sports Technology Conference (FAST) in New York City. I heard from dozens of industry insiders about the current state of wearables and development efforts.
One general arc that I took from the conference was that the current startups and even mid-level players are ripe for acquisition. Four noticeable companies who did not attend the conference were FitBit, the global leader in activity trackers, LG, Google, and Apple. It is rather obvious that these three companies are going to lead the wearables industry into great adaption by the consumer market; and that while their competition waits for them to solidify action plans, we are seeing some seismic shifts.
Some of these shifts in my opinion include:
- Bundling of various “smart” products for mass consumption, so that each individual gets the now classic activity tracker for the wrist, a part of smart glasses or sunglasses and, the option for smartwatch (see Pebble), the potential for an ankle style activity tracker and Bluetooth headphones.
- Finding a way to attach these products to a sale of a smartphone. As was discussed at the conference, Americans generally pay a much reduced price for phones and thus adding on a bundle when the phone is sold is the best way to reach consumers
- Startups in the wave Oculus Rift’s sale should be looking to sell their business to a large phone or technology company so that their device/software can be incorporated into an easily marketable product.
In addition to many of these things occurring, it seems that we are going to be seeing a divergence between the general wearable market, including the fitness or running aspect of the marketplace, and the sports marketplace. This is somewhat speculation on my part, but what you can see from emerging trends is that the health-based and activity tracker crowd is now breaking off from their sports counterparts. Is it possible we have entered the second generation or chapter in the wearable revolution? One of the key ingredients behind this thought process is the fact that the global leader in ‘smart’ sneakers is discussing getting out of the business, as Nike has considered closing its FuelBand project. Couple this fact with the consumer reports that smartwatches will be the craze of the 2014 holiday season, and a divergence becomes evident.
What are we to expect in a world where the sports wearables have broken off from their brethren in the general world? I think we are on the verge of greater specialization and the implementation of cheap and efficient team tracking. Also, the emergence of numerous concussion and head force trackers that are entering the marketplace will surely be a large target market. From the conference alone, we can see what Adidas is doing and how they have succeeded putting trackers on soccer/futbol players; and it is only a matter of time before weight, size, and battery life is long enough that this can be used in other sports. Paging Daryl Morey of the Houston Rockets! While the team efforts are clearly a major step in a divergent area, it is also obvious that greater specialization for the individual consumer is coming. Companies like ShotTracker and PUSH among the several others that I have seen target a market of people who are individual athletes. It is only a matter of time before the individual athlete translates into an entire team using a product and then an entire league.
But where this divergence occurs, it also shows the soft-under-belly (maybe not the best term when talking about fitness and sports wearables) of the industry, where acquisition and even more venture money might be needed. It is obvious even to the general on-looker and least informed individual that many of the companies in the wearable space are making items that are similar or in the same basic thought process. While open API and SDK are nice buzzwords for collaboration, this is not how I see the market growing and reaching the masses. Speaking recently with a colleague who is in this space, he agreed that it is time for the major tech players in the space to start gobbling up the smaller players. This really is the only way for major consumer implementation, because websites can only attract a certain part of the market; and if you have looked at any major wearables display in any retail store, it is so confusing and disjointed that penetration to the general consumer is going to be impossible.
The price they pay for acquisition, however, is a story for another day, but the fourth quarter of 2014 may be the most interesting time to see where the new divergent wearable industry trends towards.