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Introduction
Year 2015 ended with a phenomenal increase in smartwatch sales led by Apple Watch. Although the market forecasts remained upbeat in the first quarter of 2016, cutbacks such as Pebble’s staff layoffs and Apple’s $50 reduction in Apple Watch pricing have started waning the enthusiasm. Like any emerging products, industry sentiments on the the three year old smartwatch fluctuates almost daily between short term fad versus a future necessity.
It may be a safer bet to say smartwatches are here to stay. What is likely to happen is a convergence of many wearable uses cases being adapted into a smartwatch. Like smartphones which became more than just telephony (and that is understating it!), smartwatches will come to represent many different applications of electronic wrist wearables.
The use of a smartwatch as a wrist strapped mobile device has variety of applications in everyday consumer and industry use cases where hands-free and/or gesture based communication is required.
In this article we look at the five quietly evolving use cases and value additions of the smartwatch.
Between them, they represent a bright future for the technology as the platforms improve and developers and consumers find innovative applications for the watch.
Use Case 1: Insuring Smartphones from Physical Damage
As smartphones continue to grow bigger in size and price, smartwatches will provide value as a safer and more convenient accessory. Smartphone losses alone make a solid case for smartwatches. Sample some of the statistics reported on lost smartphones. In 2013, Consumer Reports Group estimated that a combined 4.5 million phones were lost or stolen. Dropping phones (into undesirable places) is a major cause of damage. A majority of people were willing to spend equal or more than the cost of the phone to recover stolen phones. When Apple introduced kill switches for the iPhone, an expert estimated the industry would save $34 billion. Mobile insurance premiums offered for theft or damage can cost almost as much as the phone $650 premium including deductible for an iPhone 6s. (Sources: Consumer Reports, CNET, Wired).
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Peace of mind on smartphone whereabouts? With a paired smartwatch, smartphone loss and damage statistics might just improve. Image: A composite from Consumer Reports and Visual.ly. |
By using a smartwatch as wrist accessory, the incidents of leaving smartphones can decrease. In fact a smartwatch accessory can be used to lower the underwriting risk and premium of an insured smartphone.
Use Case 2: Senior Care and Emergency Assistance
Wrist tags indicating serious health conditions and emergency measures are commonly used by sufferers of chronic ailments of all age groups and by seniors living alone. A smartwatch app can enhance this capability. For example, the app can use in built GPS functions to locate nearby hospitals or send location information. Users can use the voice control to look up information, send notifications or alter emergency services automatically in case of an incident. The smartwatch fitness sensors can continue to provide health indicators such as heart rate. By combining timing and alert functions, with Internet access and health sensors, it is possible for users to keep track of critical health indicators such as heart rate and take prompt remedial measures in case of an emergency. The fitness apps monitor health parameters and can retain history in the cloud. If sensors detect readings exceeding a threshold the app can prompt users to take the necessary action such as taking a required medication in a prescribed time limit. Apps can also send notifications to take additional action such as asking users to stop driving, alerting emergency contacts or notifying emergency services.
Lively, a smartwatch for senior citizens provides many such functions. The watch is waterproof and can be used in a bath or shower. An emergency button dials for assistance when needed. The watch communicates with other wellness sensors such as pillbox and food monitoring sensors in the home and sends notifications to users and designated family members.
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| The Lively smartwatch is specially designed for seniors living alone |
Use Case 3: Child Safety
Smartwatches designed for kids are really built for the safety use case for concerned parents. This range of smartwatches provide time keeping as well as location tracking, walkie-talkie and GPS functions to enable parents to monitor the child’s location, receive alerts when they move out of designated safe areas or get in touch using call or voicemail functions. These wrist wearables let parents and their children stay remotely connected when away or in crowded public areas such as malls, amusement parks or airports.
FiLIP and Jumpy are two start-ups that make smartwatches designed for location tracking and call functions using GPS and GSM technologies. The Filip smartwatch is actually described on their website as a wearable phone and locator. The device does not pair with a connected smartphone, instead it works as a locator and sends notifications to a companion app on the parent’s smartphone using their patented technology that combines GPS, GSM and Wi-Fi triangulation.
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| FiLIP and Jumpy smartwatches feature child friendly designs and combine GSM/GPS capabilities to provide calling and location tracking functions for parents. |
Use Case 4: Remote Control
The consumer electronic/IoT industry is grappling with the problem of basket of remotes for a long time. Smart home device management comes equipped with mobile apps that work as remote controls and control centers of smart home devices from TVs and thermostats to garages and entry doors. The smartwatch can perform the remote activation function allowing users to perform actions through gestures or wrist motions. Pebble watch users have built apps to open garage doors, while Apple Watch has a growing list of apps from leading smart home automation companies that perform functions from security access to controlling connected devices.
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| Home automation management through remote control apps. Apple Watch app from alarm.com is available on iTunes (left) and (right) a universal remote control app extention on Google Play for Sony smartwatch on Android Wear. |
Samsung is building remote management capabilities integrating SmartThings automation into the Tizen OS which powers the Gear smartwatches and Samsung’s new line of smart home entertainment TVs and appliances.
A major concern in this area is the security vulnerabilities in the current range of smartwatches themselves although one can expect future versions will have improved security features.
Use Case 5: Access Control
From public transportation to accessing secured areas in building, a smartwatch access app can be a convenient replacement to the smartphone. A smartwatch can also replace handheld magnetic strip cards such as in office building and hotel room keys, allowing gesture based access without having to pull out a card or smartphone. Similarly, a smartwatch security access can allow photo ids or unique personal identifier such as fingerprints to be stored on the watch instead of a card.
Biometric identification is also a possibility using in built health sensors. Samsung has recently received a patent for a biometric access enabling feature. Samsung’s patent envisions using a unique vein image of a wearer to unlock the watch. This can also have potential use to authenticate access to a home or car in future. FiDELYS is another venture that announced designs in 2014 for a smartwatch that can provide biometric security using iris detection technology.
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| Samsung's patent for a biometric access mechanism using vein signature (left) and (right) FiDELYS proposed smartwatch design that uses iris scan technology. |
These use cases and more are indicators of the future of the smartwatch industries. Like smartphone, smartwatches will eventually come to mean wrist wearables that will have a very wide spectrum of applications from notifications and payments of today to the intelligent voice assistant of the future. To reiterate what we observed in the first post in this series covering the industry landscape, technology companies will ultimately shape the future of this domain.
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