Wearables: Are they dead?

Three years ago at this time, smartwatches were supposed to be the next must-have gadget. They were going to be the platform on which the new popular app or social network was built, and they were supposed to free us from our smartphones. That never happened. 

A Fitbit smartwatch.

To be real here, the opposite took place, as the wearables market proved to be volatile. Newsflash: Pebble, the startup responsible for juicing interest in smartwatches back in 2012, just sold itself to Fitbit for nearly nothing. According to its website, future products were canceled and support for its current products is coming to an end.

As for Android Wear, Google’s operating system for smartwatches, it’s been delayed until 2017. To make matters worse, several partners have abandoned their plans to make new Android smartwatches this year. According to Motorola, it has halted its smartwatch plans indefinitely.

Realistically, smartwatches and other wearables had more than enough time to prove themselves as major tech gadgets, but the only companies seeing some success are Apple and Fitbit. Fitbit, by the way, has been struggling because its business revolves around the unpredictable wearables market. It’s been a roller coaster of minor successes and plenty of disappointments since its Kickstarter debut, which crossed the 1 million mark after two years and then failed to sell enough watches to seep itself into the mainstream.

As enthusiastic as the tech industry was about the shiny new wearables a few years ago, it’s time to admit that the gadgets delivered either didn’t live up to their promises or failed to impress enough people to make it big. For the most part, they’re great products for fitness junkies or geeks who enjoy receiving emails on their wrists, and that’s about it.

One way to wrap this up is to know this (and this may be thanks to clever marketing and loyal customers): Most people don’t want smartwatches or any other wearable; they want an Apple Watch.

Do you own any kind of wearable device? Do you think there's hope? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below. 

Source: Business Insider