2015/07/03 Convenience, Control and Coaching are Areas of Opportunity for Smartwatch Manufacturers

Tangible Benefits Which Differentiate From Smartphone Required to Drive Mass Market Smartwatch Adoption

Boston, MA – July 1, 2015 – The smartwatch market is still in its infancy. Today's users are predominantly lead adopters who have purchased the device based on interest in technology and the lure of owning the latest gadget, rather than based on a compelling need or defined use case. However, a new report from the Mobile Device UX group at Strategy Analytics (www.strategyanalytics.com), has identified that to drive smartwatches into mass-market adoption, manufacturers must go beyond today's main use cases and produce a device which delivers tangible benefits that are clearly differentiated from a smartphone. 

Shadowing existing smartwatch owners, Strategy Analytics has defined three areas of opportunity for developers of smartwatch experiences: Convenience (for situations where delivering information to a wearable is more compelling than to a smartphone screen); Control (using the watch separately from the smartphone to control functionality) and Coaching (nudging the user based on the fact that the watch is worn against the skin). 

Click here for the report: http://bit.ly/1JsWpDD

Mathew Alton, Analyst and report author commented, “Mass-market consumers are highly unlikely to purchase a device which broadly duplicates the functionality of their smartphone with just the added convenience of being quickly viewable. We believe that the area of ‘Coaching’ is most likely to produce compelling differentiated experiences.  Adding biometric measurement via sensors and using this, for example, to alert the user if they are tired when driving or if they are dehydrated offers great opportunities for truly differentiated use cases.

Continued Alton, “Most smartwatch owners use the pedometer on their device for fitness tracking however, because smartwatches are connected directly to the user, the potential exists for the smartwatch to enable a more valuable and holistic health and fitness coaching program for the user - gathering health data, analyzing it and providing actionable recommendations based on the user’s activity.”

Kevin Nolan, VP, User Experience Innovation Practice added, “Combining the biometric and coaching capabilities of smartwatches with intelligent and contextual recommendations offers a roadmap towards developing truly valuable and differentiated use cases for wearable devices that the mass market will value.”
Source:Strategy Analytics