Connected by wireless technology to the handset, they let users take calls and check emails or text.
BARCELONA (AFP) - Smartphone-connected watches and
bracelets have emerged as the technological phenomenon for 2014 as
manufacturers rush for new sources of revenues.
At the industry s biggest annual fair, the February 23-27 World
Mobile Congress in Barcelona, Spain, players from global leader Samsung
to China s Huawei and Sony Mobile released a string of such devices.
Connected by wireless Bluetooth technology to the handset, they let
users take calls and check emails or text messages. Many now offer to
track your every step, read your heart rate, and even monitor your sleep
pattern.
Mobile titan Samsung showed off a Gear 2 watch with sports tracking
software, a heart rate sensor and camera; and a sleek Gear Fit bracelet,
also with a pulse sensor, featuring a curved touch screen that wraps
around your wrist.
China s Huawei presented its TalkBand B, which has a pedomotor and pop-out earpiece for taking calls.
Sony Mobile is banking on its SmartBand SWR10, which keeps a record
of your movements; the photographs you take; your communications and
even the music you listen to. It will measure your sleep cycle, too, to
decide the best moment to wake you.
South Korea s LG said it would release a smart watch this year.
The big question mark in the industry is whether Samsung s archrival
Apple, which traditionally skips the mobile fair, is developing a
much-awaited iWatch or similar mobile device.
As smartphone sales slow in mature markets such as the United States
or Western Europe, such connected objects offer a chance to pry open the
wallets of consumers reluctant to update their devices.
Global smartphone sales surged 42.3 percent to 968 million units last
year, powered by demand for cheaper devices in developing markets,
according to industry research group Gartner Inc.
Yet sales in mature, more profitable markets actually slowed, it said.
Research house Canalys predicts sales of connected bracelets and
watches, however, will surge to 17 million units this year, and 45
million in 2017.
In Barcelona, manufacturers showed off some examples, from a
connected basketball that can improve your shot to a smart toothbrush
that gives you tips on technique.
"The world is approaching a tipping point in technology," Nokia
chairman and interim chief executive Risto Siilasmaa told reporters in
Barcelona.
"We see a world where connectivity will expand massively, linking
everyone and everything, altogether tens or hundreds of billions of
physical objects."
Objects would be aware of their location, temperature, motion, and
chemical composition, while also being capable of communicating to each
other, said the head of Nokia, whose handset division is being taken
over by Microsoft.
- Massive data flows -
"Massive flows of information will come from these objects, making today s data traffic look modest," Siilasmaa said.
Excluding computers, phones and tablets, there were 175 million
connected objects in 2013, a market worth 24.2 billion euros ($33.0
billion), according to research house Idate.
That figure is predicted to rise to 470 million objects generating revenue of 40 billion euros by 2017, Idate said.
Market analysts booz&co estimated that 80 percent of revenue in
the connected objects industry will go to information service providers
such as Google, not the networks.
Yet as networks becomes more advanced, the operators can gather
greater volumes of real-time, potentially lucrative data about each of
their users.
As operators learn to analyse each user s location, surroundings and
habits, that information could spark a boom in personalised advertising,
providing customers opt-in, analysts say.
Improved location and personal data-based advertising could generate
as much as $44 billion a year in revenue by 2017 for network operators,
according to a study by mobile network technology group Syniverse.
Indeed, research house Gartner Inc. predicts that global mobile
advertising will grow from an expected $18 billion this year to $42
billion in just three years, helped in part by geolocation-based
publicity drawing in smaller, local advertisers.
Posted By :: Muhammad Usman