{"id":117098,"date":"2014-07-03T13:18:00","date_gmt":"2014-07-03T18:18:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dacgroup.com\/why-the-smart-watch\/"},"modified":"2024-12-19T16:40:03","modified_gmt":"2024-12-19T21:40:03","slug":"why-the-smart-watch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dacgroup.com\/en-ca\/insights\/blog\/strategy\/why-the-smart-watch\/","title":{"rendered":"Why the Smart Watch is the Next Big Thing and What Marketers Can Do About It"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the not-too-distant future, we’ll look back at last week’s Google I\/O<\/a> developers conference as the day the smart watch really went mainstream. Google announced three new smart watches from LG, Samsung and Motorola that will use the new Android Wear platform. The devices from Samsung and LG are available in the Google Play store <\/a>already, and the Motorola watch<\/a> (which looks to be pretty stylish) will be out later this summer. While devices like the Samsung Galaxy Gear, Google Glass and the Pebble watch have been important milestones, this commitment from Google really marks the beginning of the wearable technology era. There are some very good reasons why you’ll see a lot more smart watches on the street over the next 18 to 24 months.<\/p>\n

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Dave Burke, a Google engineer, at the Google I\/O developers conference. Photograph: Stephen Lam\/Getty Images<\/b><\/h6>\n

The Form Factor is Right<\/strong><\/p>\n

The adoption of technology, even as its pace accelerates, seems to prefer the incremental to the revolutionary. Going from a phone on the wall to a cordless phone to a cell phone to a smart phone, while a major shift with huge implications within the space of two decades, seemed to strike people as a rather natural progression. Of course, Google has already tried something much more revolutionary than a watch with Project Glass. While that initiative may not be dead, it’s clear that consumers are far from ready to walk around with piece of technology on their faces. This natural tendency is good news for the smart watch. Most people already walk around with a little piece of technology on their wrists. The most recent product unveilings show that a smart watch can not only be unobtrusive, it can also be somewhat stylish.<\/p>\n

The Value is There<\/strong><\/p>\n

Naturally, a \u00a0huge factor in how any new technology is adopted is the balance between the costs and benefits of adoption. When Amazon’s Kindle first came out in 2007, the $399 price tag and relatively limited availability of titles were huge barriers to adoption. As competition and innovation drove the price down and the available content up, adoption rose exponentially. Smart watches seem to be on the same trajectory. Early attempts like the Galaxy Gear have had limited compatibility and functionality coupled with pretty high price tags. The devices announced last week are compatible with all phones that run a recent version of Android, and the price is already down around the $200 mark. By all accounts, Apple will announce its own smart watch in the fall<\/a>, and other manufacturers are sure to line up to make more Android watches (Google announced last week at I\/O that there are now one billion active Android devices out there, so companies will surely see the opportunity). This will almost certainly drive prices down even further.<\/p>\n

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Google’s new smartwatches are a step forward, but still have some way to go. Photograph: Elijah Nouvelage\/Reuters<\/b><\/h6>\n
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