Last year, in this space, we predicted that the biggest story in wearables in 2016 would be industry consolidation. We saw some prominent financial exits in 2015 – Fitbit chief among them – and Apple’s entry into the market, and realized that smaller and less-committed companies would get squeezed out, closed, acquired, or just absorbed. That’s exactly what happened. The … [Read more...]
About Dan Rosenbaum
Google to Build Its Own Android Wear Watches: Report
The Verge is reporting that Google -- possibly taken aback by the cooling of the smartwatch business and the evident lack of enthusiasm for Android Wear 2.0 -- will build two models of an Android Wear watch early in 2017. Jeff Chang, Google's product manager of Android Wear, told the site that the watches will be sold and branded by a third party, which he did not name, and … [Read more...]
Pokemon Go Comes to the Apple Watch
We're not sure that this is an improvement, and it's not as important as it would have been six months ago, but Niantic has just released its version of Pokemon Go for the Apple Watch. Now, you can see people stumbling around city streets looking at their watches like their parents did, instead of staring at their phones like their kids do. Pokemon Go, in case you've been … [Read more...]
Sensor Makers Combine, as TDK Buys Invensense
If your knowledge of TDK stopped at cassette tapes, your thinking is way out of date. The company is a market leader in magnetic sensors and actuators -- particularly in the automotive and industrial markets -- and is a big player in wireless charging. And today, it bought Invensense, which makes a very popular line of motion and environmental sensors. Invensense is an … [Read more...]
Valencell and STMicro Team For a Biometric Dev Kit
STElectronics is one of the big boys in the MEMS sensor world, and Valencell is an emerging leader in biometric sensors. (If you own earbuds that feature any kind of biometric sensor, it probably includes Valencell tech.) The companies announced today a development kit for biometric wearables. The ST SensorTile is a 13.5mm square module that comprises a microcontroller, a … [Read more...]
Google Aquihires Smartwatch Developer of Alexa-Based Cronologics
Android Wear 2.0 is late -- not that anyone seems to be panting after it. So Google has bought out a company called iMCO, which just shipped a shipped a smartwatch that used Amazon's Alexa voice recognition engine. The CoWatch runs an Android-based OS called Cronologics. It does the usual things that you expect a smartwatch to do, although reports are that the $299 CoWatch … [Read more...]
The Last Days of Pebble
The eminent tech journalist Steve Levy has, over the years, been writing a series of articles about Pebble, chronicling the company's growth. He filed the last one yesterday -- this time, about its demise. CEO Eric Migicovsky told Levy that Pebble realized too late that what people seem to want out of smartwatches above all are health apps. Migocovsky also said that Pebble's … [Read more...]
Pebble Sells to Fitbit, Ceases Sales [Updated]
Fitbit confirmed this morning that it has bought software and intellectual property of smartwatch pioneer Pebble, explicitly excluding its hardware. No price was mentioned in the company's statement. Bloomberg News reported late yesterday that Fitbit has offered jobs to Pebble's programmers as Pebble CEO Eric Migicovsky is about to join VC firm Y Combinator. Fitbit's … [Read more...]
Moto Says No New Smartwatch Anytime Soon
Once upon a time, the Moto 360 was the best Android Wear smartwatch on the market, which is not unlike calling someone "the world's tallest midget." But as Google got busy with other projects and consumers failed to warm to the attractions of the platform, sales appear to have leveled off. A couple of months ago, Google said that the next version of Wear, anticipated for 2016, … [Read more...]
Osterhout Raises $58 Million for AR Glasses
The Osterhout Design Group has finished its first fundraising round, picking up $58 million to develop its line of augmented and virtual reality glasses, the company said. ODG is an interesting company. Its roots are in military heads-up displays, and it first hit the media radar in 2014 when it sold a pack of patents to Microsoft for a reported $150 million. So while the … [Read more...]