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Smart watches will not save Christmas [Cape Argus (South Africa)](Cape Argus (South Africa) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) The past few weeks have seen the release of a deluge of new wearable electronic devices. Mostly these are smart watches, although there are smatterings of smart headpieces as well, as producers gear up for the Christmas silly season. The IT industry is in a major frothy about people wanting to wear, as well as carry, portable communications devices. But with over 1 billion smart phones already sold, most people already have |them. Worse, tablet computers have also |saturated the market. Casting around for a new device, companies fastened on the wristwatch. Google released their updated operating system targeted at smart watches last year, and companies like Samsung and Sony promptly released some - quite frankly - hideous pieces of wrist architecture soon after. Most have attempted to link phones and activity trackers which monitor how far you walk and whether you went for a run. And the market hasn't exactly exploded. Now Apple has released the Apple Watch, which attempts to link its phones to activity tracking to monitor how far you walk and whether you went for a run. There is a major difference, though, between smart phones and almost any other type of smart communications device. It comes down to how we pay for them. You generally get the phone for free (or heavily subsidised) in return for a monthly subscription to a mobile service-provider. But they can be astonishingly expensive. The iPhone 5S is over R10 000 so contracts make such devices affordable. The reason service providers can offer a phone on contract is because you're hooked on paying for calls, SMSes and internet access anyway. Not so with anything else we buy. Tablet devices and smart watches are not subsidised or on contract. And there's the nub. Tablets are useful. They're good for browsing and visiting your friends on Facebook or Pinterest or Instagram. And they last years. Watches are even more different. They're now a fashion accessory. At the low-price, "fun" end of the market, watches are a disposable that people change depending on their mood. At the high end, they're the most expensive piece of jewellery that many men will permit themselves to wear. I'm sure these watches will sell in the millions when they come out but they are not equivalent to phones. They will not save Christmas for retailers. l Gavin Chait is a data engineer and development economist at Whythawk. [email protected] Cape Argus (c) 2014 Independent Newspapers (Pty) Limited. All rights strictly reserved. Provided by SyndiGate Media Inc. (Syndigate.info). |