More People Are Buying Wearables Than Ever Before (arstechnica.com) 76
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: The wearables category of consumer devices -- which includes smartwatches, fitness trackers, and augmented reality glasses -- shipped more than 100 million units in the first quarter for the first time, according to research firm IDC. Q2 2021 saw a 34.4 percent increase in sales over the same quarter in 2020. To be clear: wearables have sold that many (and more) units in a quarter before, but never in the first quarter, which tends to be a slow period following a spree of holiday-related buying in Q4.
According to IDC's data, Apple leads the market by a significant margin, presumably thanks to the Apple Watch. In Q1 2021, Apple had a market share of 28.8 percent. Samsung sat in a distant second at 11.3 percent, followed by Xiaomi at 9.7 percent and Huawei at 8.2. From there, it's a steep drop to the smaller players -- like BoAt, which has a market share of just 2.9 percent. However, analysts say upstarts or smaller companies like BoAt are driving the significant year-over-year growth for wearables. IDC's report says that the fastest growth comes from form factors besides smartwatches, such as digitally connected rings, audio glasses, and wearable patches. This grab-bag subcategory within wearables, which the IDC simply classifies as "other," actually grew 55 percent year-over-year.
According to IDC's data, Apple leads the market by a significant margin, presumably thanks to the Apple Watch. In Q1 2021, Apple had a market share of 28.8 percent. Samsung sat in a distant second at 11.3 percent, followed by Xiaomi at 9.7 percent and Huawei at 8.2. From there, it's a steep drop to the smaller players -- like BoAt, which has a market share of just 2.9 percent. However, analysts say upstarts or smaller companies like BoAt are driving the significant year-over-year growth for wearables. IDC's report says that the fastest growth comes from form factors besides smartwatches, such as digitally connected rings, audio glasses, and wearable patches. This grab-bag subcategory within wearables, which the IDC simply classifies as "other," actually grew 55 percent year-over-year.
How it works: (Score:5, Insightful)
People cooped up at home with no bars or clubs or social gatherings to spend time at decide to start biking/jogging/walking/waddling around the neighborhood.
People biking/jogging/walking/waddling decide to buy fitness trackers.
Tech community, obsessed over the notion of "wearable tech'", lumps all these people in the same category with the tiny tiny sliver of (mostly-Bay-Area) nerds who buy Google Glasses and Apple iShoes or whatever.
By these metrics, "wearable tech'" peaked in the 1980s when everyone wore watches. Some of those watches even had calculators!
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Because iTracker 1.0 and iTracker 2.0 didn't come out in the same quarter.
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His/her point was not that Apple Watches are only bought by Bay-area folk, but that watches are the only “wearable tech” purchased outside of that community; or rather, that everything that’s not a watch but is wearable tech is so tiny as to be insignificant.
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By these metrics, "wearable tech'" peaked in the 1980s when everyone wore watches. Some of those watches even had calculators!
Not to mention the millions of Sony Walkmen.
Walkin' about with a head full of music
Cassette in my pocket and I'm gonna use it
Stereo out on the street you know, woh oh woh
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I've had a few surgeries and hospital stays this year. Nearly every nurse in the place had an Apple watch.
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I don't have one, but I've seriously considered it for this reason alone. Easier than having to get someone who isn't dirty to grab my phone out of my scrub pocket and show it to me.
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Today I just programmed a new watch face for my Open Smartwatch and I'm convinced that a wearable revolution is just getting started.
People like to be tracked (Score:5, Interesting)
Apparently it's just a fact: privacy is a totally foreign concept to the people of this generation: they just don't care about shady unaccountable companies watching their every moves and monetizing the shit out of their lives. And they even pay for the privilege.
This gen Xer just doesn't get it. At all...
Re:People like to be tracked (Score:4, Insightful)
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You're not giving it away for free. The infrastructure used to host these services isn't cheap, and neither is the development cost of all of the applications you use. Yes, nobody is paying you for that data, but likewise you're not paying for the services you receive.
Re:People like to be tracked (Score:5, Insightful)
You're paying for the service by giving away all your privacy. That's a much higher price to pay than any service is worth.
I'd be willing to pay (in real dollars) for online services I use. I'd even be willing to pay quite a lot - IF I had the absolute certainty that the provider of those services didn't also start tracking me and monetizing my data on top of the money I give them anyway. And since none of the big data companies can be trusted to restrain themselves... Also, they make a lot more money monetizing people's data than most people would be willing to pay them not to do it.
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You're paying for the service by giving away all your privacy.
...Basically what I said...
That's a much higher price to pay than any service is worth.
Depends on the person. Some people value it more than others. I don't think anybody who uses facebook doesn't understand what they're doing, yet they still go on using that shit anyways. I don't think anybody who uses tobacco doesn't know what that shit does to them, it's even written on the damn box since the very first time they started using it for fucks sake, yet what do they do?
Re:People like to be tracked (Score:4, Insightful)
I don't think anybody who uses facebook doesn't understand what they're doing, yet they still go on using that shit anyways
You would be wrong there.
I just explained the very rudimentary basics of what facebook tracks outside of it's own site/app and watched a couple of otherwise educated people go through what looked like a ten minute version of some kind of shame/grieving process due to "feeling violated" (in their words).
Things went rapidly downhill after I then explained that some "smart" devices that respond to voice commands are often leaving their microphones on all of the time and a truly easy way to shop for something you wouldn't normally shop for is to start talking about it around your smartphone/alexa/google home/television/etc because you'll start seeing ads for it.
Hell, I've seen extremely competent IT people who understand cross-site scripting not realize the full extent of what tracking cookies are doing and unless you're running a browser with something like noscript on fully and regularly allowing only what you WANT (something most people won't put up with for their daily websurfing) you probably don't have the slightest idea how deep THAT goes...and THAT'S just one visible portion on the client side.
I find that, by and large, the mass majority of people don't have the slightest CLUE what's being tracked, when it's being tracked, how it's being tracked, or where (from application to application) it's being tracked.
In fact, at best, most people will give a "well, of COURSE they track like, what I click on while I'm there, I suppose." answer when asked what, precisely is being tracked.
Go hit an Aldi or a bus station and start asking people about what facebook does.
People don't know.
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People not knowing is an excuse for not caring about it.
It's not as if the Interwebz wouldn't be choke-full of articles explaining exactly what happens.
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These so-called 'services' go out of their way to obfuscate and hide what it is they're collecting and what they're doing with what they're collecting because they don't want people to know how much they're being raped.
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You're paying for the service by giving away all your privacy. That's a much higher price to pay than any service is worth.
Yeah well, hear this.
Ulysses Everett McGill : What'd the devil give you for your soul, Tommy?
Tommy Johnson : Well, he taught me to play this here guitar real good.
Delmar O'Donnell : Oh son, for that you sold your everlasting soul?
Tommy Johnson : Well, I wasn't usin' it.
"Privacy" value could range from zero (social media addicts) to infinite (survivalists living off the grid).
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I'm willing to bet you've never looked at the sum total of services you use online, which incidentally includes pretty much every website given that's how they pay for displaying text to you. While your ultraistic idea sounds good on the surface:
a) No one would pay for all the services they use. The volume of services make even token small payments cost prohibitive.
b) A financial investment leads a barrier to change, further cementing the existing large services and preventing new ones from getting off the
Re:People like to be tracked (Score:4, Insightful)
You're paying for the service by giving away all your privacy. That's a much higher price to pay than any service is worth.
This level of hyperbole always turns up in these discussions, and it is always ridiculous hand-wringing froth. "You're giving away ALL your privacy!" What a fucking toolbag you are.
Giving away access to some of your data does not necessarily represent a major loss, or indeed any loss. Some things I don't want everyone knowing, and I keep them secret. Some things I don't want everyone knowing, but they already do. Some things nobody cares about, and they know anyway. Some things nobody cares about, and nobody knows. Every bit of privacy you have doesn't fly out the window just because you use a service. Unless perhaps you're dumb enough to trust an app from Facebook... I don't use their apps, which have been caught stealing information before. Or in general, if you grant unnecessary permissions to apps. Don't do that either.
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Of course I do. I block a bunch of stuff. I don't do certain things online at all. Other things... meh. So what if they know those things? Do you have any idea how much I told the world about me on purpose as a young dumb internet user? The shit they can know about me now is trivial.
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2. They're all FAR from tranparent with regards to how much data they're collecting or what they do with said data; that's the problem
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Apple users not giving away anything (Score:1)
wake up and realize what it is they're giving away for free
Apple Watch users are not "giving away" any data, the watch collects data which is then stored on your phone. Apple doens't see it, and cannot sell or give it away.
If you choose, you can opt to send some of the data the Watch collects to other people (like your doctor). But it has to have your permission to do so.
It's fine to warn people of the dangers of data collection but when doing so you need to admit when devices are responsible in that rega
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Data says the opposite (Score:1, Interesting)
Apparently it's just a fact: privacy is a totally foreign concept to the people of this generation:
You need to look at the data again - in fact people care very much, which is why Apple has such a high market share.
All of the health data the Watch collects is stored on your device, Apple gets to see none of it. You can choose who to share it with.
People are fine with tracking when it serves there interests and the tracking is done in their behalf. Which is reasonable, as it is useful - it's nice to have r
Re:Data says the opposite (Score:5, Informative)
All of the health data the Watch collects is stored on your device, Apple gets to see none of it. You can choose who to share it with.
Wow... You really drank the kool-aid didn't you?
Apple tracks you rotten just as much as Google does. They just track you a little less, and is a little more picky whom they sell your data to. For most Apple believers, that constitutes a privacy-respecting company apparently.
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Yep - Apple's privacy stance is pure marketing bullshit. We know they collect pretty much all the same data Google does. We know this because people keep on finding ways to jailbreak the device and can look at exactly the data it collects and exactly what it sends back.
Apple's privacy stance amounts to two things: they don't want to share with others, and they're really bad at analytics. Their entire privacy marketing was born out of reporters misunderstanding an earnings call where Apple listed as a risk t
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Google doesn't sell location data. It's too valuable to them, if they sold it it would be devalued immediately.
Apple doesn't have its own ad business anymore so has no reason not to sell that data. They probably don't, at least in Europe where it would be illegal, but if we are comparing...
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Apple tracks you rotten just as much as Google does
I'm a developer, so unlike you I know what APple does and does not receive data wise - your statement is simply false.
The device tracks you, but as stated that data is held on your phone, for your use. Apple gets nothing you do not choose to share.
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I'm a developer, so unlike you I know what APple does and does not receive data wise - your statement is simply false.
I've written iOS apps before too and, uh, I fail to see how that at all gives you any insight into what iOS does and does not send to Apple. (I mean, Apple's developer documentation is notoriously terrible anyway. It's not like it tells you anything about the parts you are supposed to use, let alone the parts happening behind the scenes.)
The device tracks you, but as stated that data is held on your phone, for your use. Apple gets nothing you do not choose to share.
How, exactly, do you know that? Because I don't.
iOS devices by default send telemetry back to Apple via encrypted channels. Who knows what's in that data. Sure, you can "tu
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All of the health data the Watch collects is stored on your device, Apple gets to see none of it. You can choose who to share it with.
Wow... You really drank the kool-aid didn't you?
Apple tracks you rotten just as much as Google does. They just track you a little less, and is a little more picky whom they sell your data to. For most Apple believers, that constitutes a privacy-respecting company apparently.
Being cynical is not the same as being informed.
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All of the health data the Watch collects is stored on your device, Apple gets to see none of it. You can choose who to share it with.
LOL
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All of the health data the Watch collects is stored on your device, Apple gets to see none of it.
That statement is not factual. Would you like another go?
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This guy has to be trolling...
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Which generation? Gen X? Is this just a general "boo young people" while ignoring it's just the new trend that older people are more likely to hop on?
Like, do you think people just stop adopting technology at 30 so all new tech is only young people?
three words... (Score:2)
open source firmware.
I'm waiting for the PineTime. Fully programmable microcontroller, no Eastasia deep state or Silicon Valley telemetry and it optionally syncs with GadgetBridge or desktop.
Okay, so it's not a full blown 'smartwatch' but I have already a smartphone in my pocket; a 'fitness band' suffices.
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privacy is a totally foreign concept to the people of this generation
No this generation just understands that privacy is not a black and white concept, and that there's a sliding scale of benefit to you to handing over data that you likely find completely nonintrusive. This generation realises that the value of things varies depending on who has the said thing.
Just because you value someone else not knowing something that in all likelihood has precisely zero impact on your life doesn't mean that it's a foreign concept to someone else.
Re:People like to be tracked (Score:4, Informative)
Have you actually looked at these devices?
For example I have a Xiaomi Mi Band 5. It doesn't have GPS, or WiFi, or a modem, so I can't collect location data or leak it. The only connection to the outside world is via Bluetooth and the Xiaomi app, which I have firewalled just in case. Not that I ever detected it leaking any traffic anyway.
Even without the Bluetooth link it's a useful tool.
There are plenty of options for people who want privacy.
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a Xiaomi Mi Band 5. It doesn't have GPS, or WiFi, or a modem...The only connection to the outside world is via Bluetooth
what does it do?
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Apparently it's just a fact: privacy is a totally foreign concept to the people of this generation: they just don't care about shady unaccountable companies watching their every moves and monetizing the shit out of their lives. And they even pay for the privilege.
Look it the other way though? What do they lose? It's not like a neighbour, friend or family member, you know---someone you can lose face to---knows. In fact there's no person who knows, it's an automated computer system. To a lot of people, priva
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Dude, our addresses used to be published in a book with our names and phone numbers. Anyone could look it up any time. I'm pretty sure you could call a switchboard and ask for a number for a person in another city without any problem.
Leave aside my Apple Watch for a moment--I use a bike computer with a GPS to track my rides because that data is useful to me. I let people see it online, because there's some utility to that too. I don't have to; Strava will let me keep the data private, though I know they ana
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where is the rest? (Score:2)
28.8+11.3+9.7+8.2+2.9=60.9
Cannot be the rest of them summing up to 39.1?
So...is it fit bit ?
Gave Away Secret Base Location (Score:5, Interesting)
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Fitness trackers didn't. A company handling the data did. There's a difference.
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Nope, I'm saying it's the company's fault for sharing the data via an API that could be easily analysed en-mass by anyone with an internet connection. They should be more like Google and keep the damn data to themselves, and less like Facebook opening the database up to any old schmo.
But really more the problem was the government's fault for not putting restrictions on the public sharing of location data. There's a reason why authorised device lists and authorised app lists exist. My original point was that
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Government better send me my Telescreen (Score:2)
Dirty capitalists would have me buy my telescreen on the free market when the government should simply assign me one.
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Where "buy" actually means that you pay for the privilledge of using it while it doesn't really belong to you, and "free" means controlled by a corporate oligarchy with headquarters in offshore tax heavens. But other than that, yeah, capitalistic.
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Capitalism never said people only had to pay once. As an MMO gamer I am very familiar with the concept of paying multiple times for the same game.
is this news (Score:2)
More People Are Buying Wearables Than Ever Before
Its a new technology - the records are only going back 10 years.
let me know when fewer people are buying wearables.
Smart watches. (Score:1)
Even cheap $40 smart watches can monitor steps, sleep and heart rate. They're not as reliable as the crazy expensive Samsung, Apple and Garmin but they're still quite useful for pointing out bad health habits. Not sleeping enough, too sedentary, overexertion and stressing (road rage, etc.).
I look forward to affordable watches that can also monitor blood pressure, O2 levels and blood sugar.
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I know the watch band has to be more snug than I like to get a solid reading as well.
Market not yet saturated sees growth (Score:2)
More people are commenting "x294?8#!" too! (Score:1)
Just now, it was zero. ... *cearly* it is a trend! ;)
Now it is one.
So