Canalys, which has a better-than-most handle on the size and shape of the consumer wearables market, is out with its 1Q15 numbers, and they show Fitbit maintaining its lead in a growing market. Overall, the research company said the wearable band market grew 150 percent year over year, with more than 7 million units shipped in the first quarter. The company did not publicly … [Read more...]
Samsung SDK Tips Features of Next-Gen Smartwatch
Samsung today released the software developer kit for a smartwatch dubbed Project Orbis. From the docs shown on SamMobile, this round-face device is very much not an Android Wear device. Chief among the specs is a rotating bezel, used to navigate through software. The SDK also indicates that the watch -- which may be called the Gear A when it's introduced at the IFA show in … [Read more...]
New Android Wear Functions Coming Soon
Google is talking officially about an upcoming update to Android Wear, an update that will include several interesting improvements to the UI. Several of the improvements are designed to trim the number of times that using your watch becomes a two-handed operation. You'll soon be able to move your way through screens by flicking your wrist instead of touching the screen. … [Read more...]
MWC Day 0: Wireless Charging in Samsung Galaxy S6 May Have an Impact on Wearables
Just a couple of hours after the announcement, there are already a zillion places where you can read about Samsung's new Galaxy S6 phone. We can affirm that it's a nice piece of gear. But what's important for wearables is not the phone itself but one of its features: wireless charging. The S6 supports wireless charging with the two major standards: WPC (the Qi specification) … [Read more...]
Android Wear Has 5 Percent of the Smartband Market, Less Than Pebble, Says Canalys
Remember when Android Wear was going to take over the smart band market? Hasn't happened yet, according to market research firm Canalys. The company says 740,000 Android Wear devices shipped in 2014, out of a total 4.6 million smart bands. (Keep in mind that Wear-based devices only were available in the second half of the year, though.) Pebble alone shipped 1 million units … [Read more...]
Pebble Teases a Pivot
Pebble CEO Eric Migicovsky gave an exclusive interview to The Verge, in which he said that his company has sold 1,000,000 watches, and that 2015 will bring new products and a new software platform. Pebble's in a pretty difficult spot. It more or less pioneered the notification device use case for wearables, and but saw Google wield its sharp elbows in the market with Android … [Read more...]
CES Day 0: Is Android in Trouble at Home? (Updated)
Monday was Press Day at CES: the day that most companies spend setting up their booths and the big boys corral the press at a hotel miles away from the show floors. Press Day is when companies like Samsung, LG and Sony sum up their successes, bury their mistakes, and set their agendas for the year ahead. Wearables, for companies like that, are barely rounding error. As sexy … [Read more...]
CEA Wearables Innovation Awards Roundup
We wrote the other evening about Qardio's winning a CEA Innovations award for wearable technology. It was not the only one: 18 products were so honored. The way this works is that companies submit products to a panel of high-powered judges in one (or more) of 27 categories. Finalists are named in each category, and the best 15 are showcased as Best of Innovations. No wearable … [Read more...]
Samsung Expands Simband and SAMI Reference Platform
https://vimeo.com/96151557 Back a few months ago, Samsung showed a reference design for wristware called the Simband. Not meant to be a product, the sensor-laden Simband was released to a limited set of developers to see what they would do with it. Today, at a big developers' conference in San Francisco, Samsung expanded the program, allowing new developers to enter the … [Read more...]
Samsung Gear S Comes to US Next Week
Samsung's Tizen-based Gear S smartband starts shipping to the US on November 7, the company announced today. The device looks and acts more than a little like will.i.am's PULS cuff, but not as slick: two inches wide with a curved Super AMOLED touch screen and built-in SIM card so it can stand alone without being tethered to a phone. Fitness tracking is done with a Nike+ app … [Read more...]