Wearables

Novelty or Necessity?

Nick Hunn – WiFore Consulting

nick@wifore.com

The verdict from the shows was that 2014 will be the Year of the Wearable

WEARABLETECH

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They’re not new – we’ve had Wearable Technologies for over 10 years.

It’s what used to be called the Quantified Self.

www.ecouterre.com

Ecouterre – the ecoFashion website has been holding a public vote on

Wearable Tech for 5 years and is a good indicator of how the public

perception of the market has changed in that time.

In 2013, it began to look like this.

Technology made way to lifestyle and fashion.

Fashion became king

There are wearables for babies

Even wearables to tell you your kids are drowning

As well as Wearables for Pets

This one isn’t serious…

But this is one of many that you can buy today.

There’s even Wearable Tech for your Barbie!

Discarding altruism for fashion

There’s another trend in Wearables

It’s not all fashion – Google recently announced a glucose monitoring contact lens for diabetics

WEARABLETECH

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The same concept picked by Ecouterre in 2009

Wearable Tech used to be about helping society deal with health issues

And enabling Assisted Living

Now it’s about Objects of Desire

Which at least recognises the need for a business model.

The Big Question is:

Will we move past wristbands in 2014?

Behind the glister a perfect storm is forming

Previously disparate industries are starting to come together

Fashion

Tech

Sport

Medical

Albeit only tentatively

Fashion

Tech

Sport

Medical

The big change is low cost sensors

The availability of small, cheap, micro-electromechanical sensors (MEMS) has rocketed.

MEMS Shipments

2007 – 10 million

2014 – 3.5 billion

2020 – 300 billion

They measure movement, position, temperature, activity and vital signs, but only cost a few tens of cents.

Initially developed for cars, they’re now in every smartphone, tablet and wearable device.

Along with the availability of low cost wireless

Bluetooth low energy (also known as Bluetooth Smart) has changed the game.

– It’s low power, running on coin cells

– It’s already in hundreds of millions of smartphones and tablets

– It’s designed to work with low power sensors

– Chips are available combining it with application processors

– It’s cheap (~$1)

Bluetooth SMART is the first wireless standard specifically designed to be easy and flexible for designers to use, allowing it to be applied to totally new connected product designs.

The glue binding these together is:

Analysts predict over 50 billion connected devices will be in use by 2020, generating a tsunami of

personal data.

A significant proportion of those could be wearable devices.

The Internet of Things

Pebble Watch: $10M

It’s never been easier to make products

Emotiv: $1.6M

Crowd-sourcing is funding a new wave of hardware innovation.

Reference designs from silicon vendors mean products can be developed much faster.

Far Eastern ODMs are keen to support any new product or company which moves them away from a dying PC market.

Large companies are close behind

• Samsung is engaging startups that it will fund with early-stage investments in the $100,000 to $2 million range from its $100 million accelerator fund.

• Apple has been hiring health sensor experts (from Sano Intelligence, Proteus Digital, Vital Connect, C8 Medisensors, Masimo and Senseonics).

• Intel has demonstrated intelligent ear-buds which choose music based on your heart rate.

As PC and laptop markets start to die, the pace of smartphone evolution slows and smart watches fail to inspire, market leaders are looking to wearables as the saviour of their industries.

They may be pretty, but by themselves, your wearable is just a Hardware App

The market will be won by companies that understand the value of data insight.

Hardware and Wireless aren’t enough

BUT…

Lots of data needs new business models, which bring new problems.

Nobody expected wristbands to be worn 24/7

What does all that data tell the manufacturer?

How often you’ve had sex.

When people actually go running.And how often?

Whether anyone else was there?

And who they were?

Whether you have a prostate problem?.

Or a urinary tract infection?.

How does that change your responsibility?

Successful companies will employ:

Data Scientists

Behavioural Scientists

Fashion Designers

Ethicists

Do you?

Designers need to think past sensors and hardware

A way of packaging sensors

A way of storing data

Constantly evolving analytics

Moving the data

Compelling customer feedback

Hardware Model Service Model

Unless you complete the chain, wearables are only “Fashion Tech”

The new game is about data.

Multiple service purchases are key

To reach the connected wearable device numbers, consumers will need to have multiple devices.

Unless services are renewed, devices will be discarded.

The industry needs to find way of making devices compelling for three years or more.

It opens up a market opportunity for wearable device service providers, who can manage multiple devices and generate compelling insight.

Source: WiFore

Number of wearables and associated apps

Wearables can be objects of beauty

• To be successful, they also need to enable compelling applications which can generate sustainable revenue.

• Otherwise, they’re just pretty hardware, and that could be a very limited market.

Nick HunnCTO

mob: +44 7768 890 148

email: nick@wifore.com

web: www.wifore.com

Creative Connectivity Blog: www.nickhunn.com

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/nickhunn

Essentials of Short Range Wireless: www.wireless-book.com