TechDomino
Many of us carry a smartphone with us everyday, so do we really need a smart watch?
Let’s start with the rumors
There are lots of rumors that big companies are coming out with smart watches. There is a rumored Apple Watch, Android Watch, and a Smart Watch from Microsoft (perhaps a Surface smart watch?).
Some people are guessing that the smart watch won’t go mainstream until Apple does it, similar to what happened with both smartphones and tablets (even an android fan can’t dispute this fact). The question is: will the fate of smart watches be determined solely by Apple?
What do smart watches do?
Like smartphones, different smart watches do different things. For example, the Pebble smart watch connects to any iPhone or Android phone to display notifications, and depending on the app, interact with your phone through the watch. One example is playing/pausing the music track on your phone.
These watches will also be able to download apps, however not many apps are optimized for such small screens.
What smart watches are out already?
The first smart watch to really excite anybody was the Pebble smart watch. It costs $150 to pre-order, and has sold 85,000 already. It has an e-paper display, letting it get up to a week of power. Also, it is water resistant, and you can turn on the back light by flicking your wrist up.
The other big smart watch is made by Sony, which is the only smart watch to feature a color display at the moment. It also is ‘splashproof’, but Sony still doesn’t suggest testing that.
Who will buy one?
Early adopters will soak up all the smart watches, because they aren’t practical enough yet for most mainstream consumers. At this point, they’re mostly just notification bracelets which you have to keep charged, and are still quite bulky. I’d suggest holding off until there is more competition in the market, because until that happens these smart watches likely aren’t worth batting an eye at. Yet.
