The latest conclusion of the US authoritative network media: smart wearable devices are dead

BI Chinese station reported on December 12

Three years ago, the outside world believed that smart watches would be the next wave of the next technology industry. It is said that smart watches will become the next mainstream computing platform and become the carrier of next-generation application software and social networks. Smart watches will also get people out of their reliance on smartphones. In addition, smart watches will also transform from a niche geek market to a mass mainstream market.

However, all expectations have not become a reality. People saw the opposite thing happen.

Including the smart watch, the wearable device market has proven to be very fragile. Many companies have become victims, and their death rate has even surpassed that of the company that was kicked out of the history stage by Apple's smartphone.

Last week, Pebble, the former pioneer of smart watch companies, came to an end and its software business was sold to Fitbit in a worthwhile way. The company's future smartwatch project has also been terminated, and technical support for existing products will soon stop.

In addition, Google's operating system Android Wear for smart watches, Google has extended the release of the new version of the system to next year, and many of Google's hardware partners did not launch new smart watches this year. Motorola Mobility said it will stop introducing new watches.

In the wearable device market, we have seen too many pessimistic phenomena, whether it is the once smash hit sports bracelet manufacturer Jawbone, or the new giant Intel who entered the field.

Foreign media pointed out that smart watches and other wearable devices market has been long enough to verify whether they can become the next major market for the masses, but so far only two companies have succeeded: Fitbit, which is already on the market, and Apple Inc. launched Apple Watch. It should be pointed out that Fitbit's current operating conditions are not very satisfactory.

A few years ago, the technology industry was very crazy about smart watches and wear, but now it must be admitted that these products did not meet the original expectations, and did not evoke enough consumer interest to cultivate a substantial market size.

At present, wearables is still a niche product, suitable for sports enthusiasts, or technology geeks who want to send emails on their wrists.

In fact, the bad signals in the wearable device market have existed long ago. For example, Pebble has achieved a good start on the online crowdfunding platform Kickstarter, but they did not develop the smart watch into a popular product. After the launch of the first smart watch two years later, the sales volume exceeded one million.

Apple introduced Apple Watch, but the company has not explained why it is designed to design a smart watch. Until this year, Apple has clearly defined the positioning of the watch, more emphasis on its function in the field of sports health monitoring.

Another giant, Fitbit, has encountered too many setbacks on the road of product development, and few successful products.

According to people familiar with the Pebble situation, in fact, last year, Pebble management has already felt bad. In the last Friday's Black Friday and online shopping Monday, the company's sales of smart watches failed to achieve year-on-year growth.

The company quickly realized that no matter how passionate the technology industry is for smart watches, Pebble could not expand its watch line to make it a mass market.

It should be pointed out that Pebble's sales at the end of last year was sluggish, and it was not unrelated to Apple Watch's first wearer of the Christmas shopping season (Apple started selling smart watches early last year).

Foreign media pointed out that from the current point of view, we can make the following judgment: There is no so-called smart watch or wearable device market, only Apple and Fitbit have succeeded.