Smartwatches taking their time to catch on

Smartwatches had been slowly gaining momentum when the much anticipated Apple watch launched just 18 months ago giving the market a major kick. However it seems that they are having difficulties breaking into the mass consumer market - in short, they just haven't really caught on! A new industry report from IDC indicates the smartwatches are down 51.6 percent on shipments comparing to same time last year, going to 2.7 million units from 5.6 million units same time last year. Last years fad seems to have become more of a fizzle.... 

Multiple reasons have been proposed for the recent sharp decrease – primarily an anticipation of Apple Watch Generation 2, arriving in September, would have held some consumers back from purchasing in Q3. Also Google’s pushed back release date of Android wear 2.0 to January 2017, the new generation OS for android smartwatches will have contributed. These factors significantly effect to the market with few new products, thus leading to a weak quarter on Sales. However not necessarily meaning that smartwatches are dead just yet. 

Garmin, in fact boasts the largest year-on-year increase, thanks to the introduction of more 'connectIQ' app store enabled smartwatches and the high-end model 'fenix Chronos'. It made a impressive jump from the smallest market share (2.3%) last year to 20.5% this year, becoming the second largest smartwatch vendor worldwide.

As the tech companies struggling to bring the smartwatch mainstream, high-end fashion brands have been incorporat smartwatches into their portfolio. Recently, Fossil Group launched >40 smartwatch hybrids across its different luxury brands like Emporio Armani, Michael Kors, Kate Spade etc. They look and feel like traditional watches, but with an app for you to track your activity data. The watches vibrate to indicate incoming calls, allow customisation of haptic feedback, with different features unique to each brands. For example, Emporio Armani watches could sync with your mobile phone, control music directly, do sports and sleep tracking and equipped with a quartz battery that does not require recharging.

Fossil emerged as one of the unlikely competitors for the smartwatch market, balancing consumer needs for design and technology. Jill Elliot, Fossil’s Chief Creative Officer, commented on the strong sales figures of the connected wearable launched late 2015. 

With an expected value of 19 Billion US dollars on the wearables market in 2018, smartwatches still have lots of potential. With the upcoming holiday season just around the corner, it might just give the market a boost it needs.

Brian Trappe is Managing Director of Axiom Technology Headhunting in Hong Kong.