Fossil bullish on wearables with big rollouts soon

American watchmaker Fossil revealed its plan for the future, and it involves a lot of wearables. In the second quarter earnings call, the company said it would embark on an “unprecedented launch” of wearables.

In the next three months, Fossil CEO Kosta Kartsotis said it would launch eight wearables in three categories—hybrid, smartwatch, and activity tracker—that will become the primary growth leader for the company.

Fossil plans to sell wearables of all shapes and prices, from smartwatches costing over $400 to smaller fitness trackers costing less than $100.

“We are well on our way to launching connected accessories across more of the brands in our portfolio and are on track to deliver this product in the third quarter,” Kartsotis said. “Weaker performance in our wholesale channel, particularly in the US, where the business is most challenged, is likely to continue. However, we believe the innovative products launched later in the year can begin to re-energize the channel.”

Fossil has already announced two of the planned devices, the Q Wander and Q Marshal, which are available to pre-order with an August 29 release date. The two smartwatches run Android Wear and have minimal internal differences. Fossil wants customers to choose the watch based on the design, similar to how we choose fashion accessories.

To emphasize the design options, Fossil is importing some well known designer brands to the wearables market later this year. Michael Kors, Kate Spade, Armani, Diesel, Misfit, and Chaps by Ralph Lauren will all design smartwatches, fitness trackers, or hybrids, to be released in the September to November period.

Fossil investors have changed their tune

Investors blamed wearables for Fossil’s poor performance in Q1 this year, cutting the stock price by 30% after the announcement.

But those investors seem to be happy with the company’s wearables focus now, according to MarketWatch the stock climbed nine percent after the earnings call. That is despite revenue falling from $740 million last year to $685 million in the three month period this year.

Android Wear hasn’t been a great success for OEMs, none of the manufacturers are in the top five for sales volume. Even Samsung, which has launched a variety of wearables in the last year, came in sixth.

Basis Peak watches recalled, service shutting down due to overheating

Basis Peak, a fitness watch tracking your health and sleep habits, is now being recalled by the company after reports of overheating.

The Intel subsidiary first sent a statement about the overheating issues mid-June and is now asking customers to stop wearing their watches and is shutting down service “immediately.”

“We had hoped to update the software on your watch to address the problem,” the company said in a statement. “Unfortunately, despite our best efforts, we aren’t able to develop such a solution without completely compromising the user experience. As a result, we are asking that you return your Basis Peak watch and authorized accessories for a full refund at your earliest convenience.”

Many of those who’d purchased the watch tweeted their disappointment at having to return the watch.

However, according to the company, the overheating issue has caused burns and blisters on approximately 0.2% of customers. Basis apologized in the statement, saying it was now concerned for customer’s safety.

Customers will still be able to access their data from the watch until the end of the year. They will also be issued a full refund for their purchase by visiting https://support.mybasis.com or calling one of the designated country numbers listed here.

Parent company Intel bought Basis for $100 million in 2014.

OnePlus ain’t interested in virtual reality or wearables

OnePlus, the Chinese smartphone manufacturer, has no plans to invest heavily into smartwatches or virtual reality in the near future.

Co-founder Carl Pei made it clear that while it has worked on devices for both markets in the past, it does not want to become a competitor. Instead, the focus is back onto the single flagship, the OnePlus 3.

Like most things, OnePlus doesn’t want to follow the trends of most mobile companies. In an interview with TechRadar, Pei said that wearables are “too risky” and that “jumping into Android Wear would have lost us a lot of money.”

He is probably right, Android Wear has failed to capture a large amount of sales in the past two years, in part due to Google’s passivity towards the platform. It has lacked advertising space that Apple has gobbled up for its Watch, and lacks the Fitbit’s fitness appeal.

OnePlus came close on wearables but no cigar

OnePlus was close to launching a wearable last year, but pulled the plug at the last minute, possibly due to the risk factor.

It might be worth mentioning that OnePlus is a subsidiary of Oppo, which is a subsidiary of BBK Electronics. BBK sells kids watches in China under different subsidiaries and is the fifth largest manufacturer in the world, which may be another reason why OnePlus is lukewarm on the wearables market.

Virtual reality is another area where OnePlus has flirted with, but ultimately not invested in. In 2015, sent hundreds of Google Cardboard devices to fans for its OnePlus 2 launch. This year, it offered 30,000 Loop VR headsets for the OnePlus 3 launch.

PR stunts are not hints at an incoming VR announcement from OnePlus though, as Pei mentions in his interview. He believes that Oculus, Google, and Valve are the three major players in VR and it will take a few years before a winner emerges, who sets the standards for VR.

Pei does see a future where OnePlus has a VR headset, but it looks like the company is waiting to see what the prefered functionality, features, and controllers are before it invested millions into the market.

Will wearables be commonplace in classrooms?

Adoption of wearables in U.S. classrooms will supposedly grow at 46 percent annually till 2020, as more schools start to test virtual and augmented reality, fitness and location trackers.

Research firm Technavio says that like iPads, wearables will become commonplace in the classroom, providing students with ways to enhance their learning and have a more enriching experience.

Wrist wearables will take up 44 percent of the total market share by 2020, according to Technavio, with schools providing fitness trackers for physical education lessons and possibly location trackers for first year students, showing them a map to their next lesson.

Samsung, Apple, Fitbit, and Garmin will supposedly be the leading vendors for wrist wearables in schools, though we doubt many students will be given an Apple Watch or the latest Gear S2.

Going on a virtual class trip…in the classroom

While that sounds possible, virtual and augmented reality is most likely to become popular in the near future. The ability to take classes on “virtual trips” with Google’s Cardboard VR or display places like Machu Picchu or the Grand Canyon in 3D on a school desk could increase engagement in lessons and provide interactive learning to younger students.

It could also lead to more out-of-lesson education, as students test the virtual and augmented reality devices after school or during breaks.

Technavio sees the VR and AR market as fragmented, but claims that the major players should be able to consolidate their power by 2020. Regional vendors will find it “difficult to compete with them in terms of product quality, technology, and pricing.”

Microsoft, Facebook, and Google will most likely provide AR or VR headsets free of charge or with a big discount, to drive adoption amongst young people. The worry here is that once these technologies are commercialized, schools may not see the value of these devices, especially devices like the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive VR, which are mainly marketed at gamers.

Qualcomm wants you to train your new Snapdragon

Qualcomm has expanded its wearable chip range the recent Computex Taipei event,announcing the mid-range Snapdragon Wear 1100, a chip for less powerful wearables.

The Snapdragon Wear 1100 is aimed at “targeted purpose wearables” like fitness and location trackers, and smartwatches for kids, which don’t require as much computing power as a fully fledged smartwatch.

Qualcomm has made the Snapdragon Wear 1100 15 percent smaller than the Wear 2100; Qualcomm’s more powerful wearable chip for smartwatches. This might allow fitness tracker manufacturers like Fitbit and Jawbone to create even smaller devices, without sacrificing too much on the performance side.

An LTE/3G modem, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth low-energy, Qualcomm’s own iZat location tracking technology, and a Power Save Mode are all inside the chip. The chipmaker claims it can last for up to seven days on LTE standby.

Qualcomm want a piece of purpose-built wearables

We are starting to see a shift in the wearable market towards “purpose-built wearables”; devices that are useful for a specific market or type of customer. Xmetrics CEO Andrea Rinaldo spoke about this in a recent interview, stating that users interactions should be limited but powerful, like the company’s swimming headband, rather than trying to capture every market at once.

Qualcomm is eager to tap into that market of enthusiastic niche markets, as they have beenwith autonomous cars, virtual reality, and any other emerging technology that requires a chipset.1

At the Computex event, Qualcomm revealed that over 100 wearables use the company’s chips. Sadly, for Qualcomm, most of the wearables use the Snapdragon 400, a low-end mobile chip, rather than the Snapdragon Wear 2100.

It also revealed that the Snapdragon Wear 1100 would be available for manufacturers by the end of the year. As with most Qualcomm chip announcements, a price for the chip was not disclosed.



Pebble launches 3 new products on Kickstarter

Six months after the release of the Pebble Round, Pebble is back with a new lineup. And because its Pebble, you know it’s launching on Kickstarter.

Fifteen months after raising $20 million for the Pebble Time on Kickstarter, the original smartwatch maker is back with the Pebble 2 and the Pebble Time 2. It’s also launching a new non-smartwatch product called the Pebble Core.

The Pebble 2 is being billed as the company’s “most affordable” smartwatch, with a focus on fitness. The design is reminiscent of the original Pebble — though the sides are a little more tapered and it feels thinner.

Like the original Pebble and the Pebble Time, the Pebble 2 has an e-paper display and weeklong battery life. It’s also waterproof up to 30 meters and it has a built-in microphone for notes and voice replies. It will retail for $129 when it ships this September, but Kickstarter backers can buy in for $99.

IMAGE: PEBBLE

When I asked Eric Migicovsky, Pebble’s CEO, if this was Pebble’s take on the Fitbit, he smiled. He also pointed out that Fitbit is increasingly getting into Pebble’s territory by becoming more watch-like.

This is true, but something tells me that the $129 price point will make some interesting competition for buyers who want the benefits of a fitness tracker, but also want to be able to summon an Uber on their wrist.

IMAGE: PEBBLE

Pebble Time 2

Also launching on Kickstarter today is the Pebble Time 2.

Like last year’s record-breaking project, the Pebble Time 2 is Pebble’s attempt to compete with the Android Wear/Apple Watch crowd.

The Pebble Time 2 is about the same physical size as the Pebble Time, but its screen is 50% larger. It’s also higher resolution, with 80% more pixels.

The battery life is rated at 10 days and it has a built-in heart rate monitor and microphone. Pebble isn’t bifurcating the Pebble Time/Pebble Time Steel lines this year, and is instead one model. It’s available in stainless steel, black and gold.

The Pebble Time 2 will retail for $199 when it ships in November, but you can get it on Kickstarter for $169.

Pebble Core

The Pebble 2 and Pebble Time 2 are cool, but the most interesting Pebble product is the Pebble Core.

IMAGE: PEBBLE

The idea, Migicovsky says, is to decouple the smartwatch experience from your phone.

“Sometimes when you go out running, you don’t want to take your phone,” he tells me. “You just want to run and listen to Spotify.” Enter the Pebble Core.

A tiny, square-sized object that fits on a keychain, the Pebble Core is a screenless device that can decouple some of your phone needs from your watch.

The device can stream Spotify (and store playlists for offline playback) and it has a built in GPS. It also has a built-in microphone that lets you capture voice memos.

It has 3G and WiFi and you can send emergency text messages to family or friends at the tab of a button. It can also be programmed to work with Pebble apps with one tap.

It charges wireless using the Qi standard and is rated for a battery life of 9 hours for playing back music and using the GPS.

And although the Pebble Core works great with a Pebble, a Pebble isn’t needed. If you wanted to go running with it as simply a Spotify playback device, you could do that. (It has a headphone jack or syncs to your Bluetooth earbuds).

Running on Android Core, the Pebble Core is programmable and Migicovsky thinks this could be the type of product that gets developers mojo running, similar to the AWS Dash Button.

I don’t know how broad the market is for the Pebble Core – but I do like the idea of a non-smartwatch wearable that is programmable. Plus, with a built-in microphone, you can imagine a future Alexa/Google Home style voice interaction system.

The Pebble Core is $69 on Kickstarter and will sell for $99 when it ships in early 2017.

Smartwatches fail to keep time despite wearables growth

The wearables market has seen over 67 percent annual growth in the past twelve months, but the smartwatch industry continues to drag down the numbers.

Market research firm IDC posted sales results for the first quarter, which shows Fitbit and Xiaomi ahead of the rest by a considerable margin. The two companies hold 24.5 and 17 percent of the market, respectively.

Apple comes in third with 1.5 million sales in the first quarter, accounting for 7.5 percent of the market. It has done considerably better than its rival, Samsung, in fifth place with 700,000 sales.

Android Wear manufacturers did not reach the top five, beaten by Garmin and BBK, a Chinese firm that sells a kids watch. IDC does count more than 37 percent of sales in ‘Other’ however, so it is possible that Android Wear watches surpass Samsung or Apple when combined.

Fitness appears to be the key function for wearables in 2016, as it has been for the past few years. Fitbit sold 4.8 million and Xiaomi sold 3.7 million this quarter; both firms provide inexpensive wearables that track health and fitness with limited interactivity on the wearable.

Smartwatches and wearables going their own ways

“There’s a clear bifurcation and growth within the wearables market,” said Jitesh Ubrani, senior research analyst for IDC’s Mobile Device Trackers. “Smart watches attempt to offer holistic experiences by being everything to everyone, while basic wearables like fitness bands, connected clothing, or hearables have a focused approach and often offer specialized use cases.”

Xmetrics CEO had a similar opinion of the wearable market, saying that in the next few years more customers will move towards a simplistic and singular experience.

That doesn’t mean smartwatches are dead in the water, however it might be a few years before we can expect it to be on the same level as mobiles or PCs.

Want more screen space on your smartwatch? Put a ring on it…

Can two wearables be better than one? Carnegie Mellon University’s Human-Computer Interaction Institute (HCII) will be presenting some new research next week in which they demonstrate a technique aimed at extending the available screen space for smartwatch wearers by adding an additional wearable into the mix: a ring.

Their smartwatch-ring wearable combo offers what they describe as “a novel sensing approach” — leveraging the conductivity of human skin in order to track 2D finger touch co-ordinates in real-time and turn the area of the body directly around the smartwatch into an interactive, touch-tracking surface.

The idea being that wearables like smartwatches can feel cramped and fiddly to interact with, given how small their screens need to be to fit on the average human wrist.

The ring plus smartwatch approach would allow a watch wearer to, for example, run a finger down the back of their hand and then swipe right to scroll through an on-screen list and select an item. Or trace a letter on the back of their hand to shortcut to a particular app or silence an incoming call.

Offloading some of the necessary on-screen taps and swipes onto the surrounding skin also frees the screen from being blocked by fingers — potentially making for a superior smartwatch app experience, such as for games (the researchers use the example of playing Angry Birds in the above demo video).

They say their technique works through clothes, and is unaffected by different lighting conditions. In terms of accuracy results from the study apparently demonstrated “high reliability and accuracy with a mean distance error of 7.6mm”.

Gestures can also be transmitted contactlessly via the technique, with a finger hovering up to an inch above the surface of the skin, thanks to a partial transmission of an electrical signal owing to the human arm acting like an antenna, says CMU’s Chris Harrison, one of the scientists involved in the research.

The two components powering CMU’s prototype wearable are a battery-powered ring that continuously emits an 80MHz, 1.2Vpp AC signal into the finger on which it is worn; and a smartwatch wristband instrumented with a structured electrode pattern.

“When the user’s finger touches the skin, the electrical signal propagates into the arm tissue and radiates outwards… The signal takes time to propagate, which means electrodes located at different places around the wrist will observe characteristic phase shifts. By measuring these phase differences across several electrode pairs, SkinTrack can compute the location of the signal source (i.e., the finger), enabling real-time touch tracking on the skin,” they explain.

A prior project from HCII, back in 2014, also focused on trying to extend the surface area of a smartwatch — in that instance by using proximity sensors and projectors to display colored light buttons on the skin around the watch which could be interacted with without needing to touch the device itself.

The latest prototype is arguably a less cumbersome approach to trying to extend the interactive surface area for smartwatch wearers, with the researchers noting that it requires “no direct instrumentation of the touch area (i.e., a skin overlay)”. Although it does of course require the wearer to also charge, wear and not lose a ring.

And while we’ve seen a few attempts to fire up a market for supplementary smart rings in recent times, either as smart jewelry for notifications or as remote controls for other devices, it’s fair to say that mass consumer adoption has not yet taken place. Problem is chunky rings are, well, a matter of taste. And easily dislodged/misplaced.

Still, the CMU researchers reckon they are onto something by combining rings and smartwatches. “As our approach is compact, non-invasive, low-cost and low-powered, we envision the technology being integrated into future smartwatches, supporting rich touch interactions beyond the confines of the small touchscreen,” they write.

Harrison reckons commercialization of the technology could be possible within two to three years — assuming a smartwatch maker decides consumers can be convinced to buy into the benefit of a dual wearable. (They would also, presumably, need to fire up developers to code additional gesture controls to their smartwatch apps to take advantage of a more expansive ‘skinterface’.)

“We need to improve the stability and accuracy but its the first of it kind, so we are really excited by the potential,” Harrison tells TechCrunch.

He adds there are no trade-offs with this technique, in size terms, when it comes to the smartwatch wristband. “It could be made very small, such that it fits into existing smartwatch form factors,” he says.

The biggest downside of the approach remains the need to wear (and not lose) an additional wearable (the ring). So how small could this be? The current CMU prototype is clearly pretty cumbersome. But Harrison says the team believes it can shrink this in size by incorporating an accelerometer to maximize battery life.

“Our ring’s current battery is small, but still a bit awkward. We used this bigger battery to simplify our prototyping — it lasts 15 hours on a single charge when continuously transmitting. However, we are planning for some simple tricks that could dramatically extend that,” he says.

“For example, it is easy to increate a small accelerometer that can detect when the finger has touched something, and we can turn on the signal emission only then.  That would easily bring battery life to several days or even a week, or allow us to use a much smaller battery.”

The CMU research will be presented next Tuesday, at the ACM SIGCHI Conference in San Jose.

Over a third of households may own a wearable next year

35 percent of households may own a wearable by this time next year, as people start to see the value in a wearable that can track fitness and give detailed analysis on your workouts.

That’s a 15 percent gain on current wearable ownership, according to the Consumer Technology Association. In a study published this week, CTA revealed a large interest in fitness trackers and other related wearables, but less of an interest in smartwatches.

Only eight percent of households own a smartwatch currently and that figure is set to reach 16 percent by next year. That’s still improvement, but the cost of a smartwatch for its limited additional features seems to be pushing consumers to fitness trackers and other cheaper wearables.

But it’s not just fitness wearables

The report also mentions smart home devices, like thermostats, lighting controls, and motion sensors becoming more popular in the United States, with 15 percent of households owning at least one device.

Connected devices like smart TVs, speakers, and wireless headphones are also easing consumers into the smart home process of connecting devices through Bluetooth and the internet. CTA believes that this is a bridge for households to move to a smart home system, once they understand the capabilities of a connected home.

Smartphones continue to rule the roost when it comes to gadgets and have become hub devices for a smart home system. Some expect to see the smartphone fade away in ten years, but for now it is a prime device that is required if you want a smart home.

As we move forward in the wearable market, it might be even harder for smartwatches to appeal to consumers. Xmetrics CEO expects to see more focused wearables that offer one purpose, and does not see the additional smartwatch functionality as worthwhile.