Upon reading through a few fitness articles, I observed that every so often an ad would appear for what looked like a watch but I paid no mind as I was more interested in the articles themselves. Then one day while surfing the internet, another ad for a smartwatch appeared and I decided to click it. That one click led to a multitude of clicks and reading and listening to reviews.
Most of these smartwatches are connecting to our phones through Bluetooth. They can tell time. They can count the amount of steps that you took during the day and calculate about how many calories you burned! Did I say that they can tell the time? Well, they can tell the time. Oh and they send you notifications when someone texts you. And with a select few, you can even answer to text messages and emails and even talk on the phone! Did I say they tell time? It's like now, we as civilians, can act like James Bond and all so conveniently. But wait, isn't this almost like a beeper for the iPhone 6 or Galaxy S5 that you're carrying around, which has all these features anyways, that work perfectly fine and isn't sucking battery because of bluetooth anyways? Yeah that's what I thought.
We are looking at a recycling of the old in a new and shiny form. I was almost hooked on buying one myself but then I realized,"Wait...I don't even LIKE watches on my wrist. Why would I even want something bulkier on my wrist?" That was the turning point for me in differentiating revolutionary and recycling.
Smartwatches were once called beepers; sent you "notifications" of those that had called you and left you a message. No different concept today, just a few nice-to-have features that act as a way of self rewarding and showing the world "Man this guy is REALLY busy all the time and he must go running all the time." But are you really busy all the time or you want people to know you're an Apple aficionado?
These so called smartwatches are encountering a pretty big barrier at the moment, which is that most of them aren't all that smart all the time. Many are requiring a recharge within three days, glitching, poor visibility in sunlight, they don't connect too well to your phone, they suck the soul out of your phone, they crack without even encountering a fall, the list goes on and on. So why exactly do we want one? Well, I don't think we do want one, it's just companies running out of ideas, which means its the usual.
http://bgr.com/2014/10/13/why-smartwatches-will-fail/
I’ve always seen smartwatches as the productivity equivalent of fitness/activity trackers like the Fitbit. As far as I can tell, these devices don’t actually offer anything of use, but rather provide meaningless data for people to pore over. Devices like the Fitbit Surge can be used when running or cycling, but this functionality will always lag behind the capabilities of a dedicated running/cycling/triathlon watch. I’m not going to change my sleeping habits because my sleep metrics tell me to- I already get feedback about my sleep based on how I feel in the morning. Calorie estimation based on steps is inaccurate without a heart-rate monitor. For the devices that allow 24/7 heart-rate monitoring, what is a user even supposed to do with that information? I can take my heart rate by just checking my pulse. If it’s too high, I know I should probably move more.
ReplyDeleteUltimately people buy these devices so they feel like they accomplished something without actually accomplishing anything. By purchasing an activity tracker, you can “buy” fitness. Similarly, with smartwatches, you can “buy” productivity instead of actually improving your productivity. Anyone with a smartphone already has the tools they need.
Yeah I definitely agree with you. It's a surge of useless information that in reality, nobody has time to go back and upload the information and analyze it on a daily basis. If you want the time, get a watch. Monitor your heart? Learn to check your pulse. Track distance walked? Use your phone. Pointless tech indeed.
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