Over the last couple of years, there has been a flood of wearable technology — from smart watches to pure activity trackers such as Fitbit. So, what’s likely to happen in 2016?
Here are 2016 predictions from James A. Martin, writing for CIO.com:
- “The popularity of wearables will continue to mount.”
- “Smartwatches won’t kill off dedicated activity trackers.”
- “Fitbit will remain king of the activity trackers. [But] Competition will heat up for Fitbit.”
- “Fitbit will add ‘advanced sensors’ to maintain a competitive edge.”
- “Wearable apps will become more sophisticated — and expensive.”
- “Hackers will target wearables.”
- “Athletes will embrace ‘smart clothing’.”
- There will be more of a “focus on sleep.”
- “Niche wearables will become commonplace.”
- “Activity trackers will remind more people to stand up.”
- “Traditional watch makers will add ‘smart’ elements.”
I found this article very interesting to read about. I agree that the wearable exercise technology is increasing the societies involvement in being more physically active on a daily basis which hopefully can reduce the obesity rate across america. This technology however surprised me while reading this when they stated that eventually we can have these wearable technologies embedded into our bodies through a chip to help regulate our physical, emotional, and psychological needs within our environments. Its truly amazing how far technology is growing.
Personally, I like Fitbit better than Apple watch. Unlike Apple watch, Fitbit doesn’t have multiple functions, but it is cheaper and focus on a specific function. The purpose of using Fitbit is to keep a healthy life. People can track their activities and share the data with their friends, On the other hand, Apple Watch have too many functions that iPhone can do for us. With multiple functions, it becomes inefficient to use Apple watch to track activities.
I think it’s unbelievable how popular wearable technology has become in recent years. Although Fitbit and smart watches (such as the Apple Watch) are different, it surprises me that Fitbit activity trackers had more sales than the Apple Watch, since Apple has a lot of brand loyalty from their consumers. Although Apple Watches are pretty successful, I also believe that the reason why they have fewer sales than Fitbits because Apple Watches are much pricier, and have a lot of the same features as the iPhone.
🙂