Mobile and wearable payment adoption is expected to skyrocket over the next few years. A new study by Juniper Research predicts that mobile and wearable contactless payments could hit US$95 billion (about CA$122 billion) annually by 2018. In comparison, mobile payments hit US$35 billion last year. Sales of smartphones and other mobile devices have dwarfed those of wearables to date and […]
Wearables
Study: Companion apps hindering wearable device growth
A new study by Argus Insights has found that consumers may love their wearable devices but they are not so enthused by the companion apps they come with. An analysis of some 136,000 consumer reviews of wearables devices and applications found that there is a gap in consumer satisfaction between the hardware and the apps. Furthermore, this gap could hinder future wearable device growth. […]
Fitbit continues to dominate wearables market in Q4 2015
Predictions that Apple would leap ahead of Fitbit on the strength of Apple Watch sales proved inaccurate as Fitbit remained the “undisputed worldwide leader of wearable devices” in Q4 2015 according to the latest International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Wearable Device Tracker. After shipping 4.7 million devices in the previous quarter, Fitbit shipped a further 8.1 million wearables in Q4 to bring […]
Acer and Victorinox announce smart wearable accessories partnership
Victorinox, the company behind the famed Swiss army knife, and Acer today announced a new partnership that will see them incorporate wearable technology into the Swiss company’s product portfolio. The objective of the partnership is to develop accessories that will give lifestyle products such as a Swiss-made watch the functionality offered by wearable technology. The first product to emerge from this new partnership will be […]
Worldwide wearable sales to grow 18.4 percent in 2016
If Gartner’s latest worldwide wearable sales numbers are to be believed, 2015 may have been a bigger year for smartwatches than initially believed. Juniper Research pegged 2015 smartwatch sales at 17.1 million units. Gartner estimates that 274.6 million wearable electronic devices were sold in 2015 with 30.32 million of those being smartwatches. It also expects that smartwatch sales alone will hit […]
Samsung patents wearable authentication using your veins
Future Samsung smartwatches may use images of the veins of the top of your hand or your wrist to recognize you. The South Korean company has filed a patent titled “Wearable Device And Method Of Operating The Same” with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) for this new way of making sure that you are who you say you are. Like other […]
Spending on activity trackers doubled in 2015
Consumer spent more than twice buying up new connected activity trackers in 2015 than they did the previous year. A new report by The NPD Group found that sales grew 110 percent, jumping from US$692 million in 2014 to US$1.46 billion in 2015. Unit sales jumped 85% from from 7.2 million to 13.4 million with the average selling price (ASP) increasing from $US96 to […]
Google Glass no longer smart glasses market leader
Google Glass made smart glasses a household name among early wearables adopters and consumers at large. While it’s not clear how well (or poorly) it sold, it became the defacto standard to which all other smart glasses were compared. Google put an end to its Glass Explorer Program in January 2015 but promised that it was not done with smart glasses. […]