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Apple Watch 50 percent smartwatch market sales majority dominant android wear pebble samsung martian
Business, Watches

Apple Watch Estimated To Have Over 50% Of Smartwatch Market

January 13, 2016

Apple Watch 50 percent smartwatch market sales majority dominant android wear pebble samsung martian

While Apple still isn’t releasing any numbers, a new report from Juniper Research estimates that the company’s Apple Watch now controls over half of the smartwatch market. This echoes similar numbers from IDC from before the holidays. If true, this is big news for the California based company, which was notably late to enter the segment. The Apple Watch has only been shipping for slightly more than 8 months, while Samsung and Pebble have been selling smartwatches since 2013 and Android Wear started shipping almost 2 years ago. Juniper believes that Apple has secured 52% of the smartwatch market. Android Wear, on the other hand, comprised less than 10% of the year’s smartwatch shipments and Samsung’s Gear S2 barely made an impact. No word on Pebble’s take, but we would suspect that they also are around 10% of the market. One of the most interesting aspects of the report from Juniper is that simple smartwatches, such as the non-display models, are proving extremely popular. These devices offer activity tracking and, at most, notifications, but no apps or deeper connectivity. Specifically mentioned in the report is Martian, which produces connected watches similarly priced to a Fitbit. It is easy to see how a device like that could serve as “trial” watch, allowing the customer to see what they think of smartwatches without spending a large amount of money. Oddly, the report also mentions the popularity of a connected Guess watch and Breitling timepiece, both of which sell for more than the Apple Watch… the Breitling is actually closer to Apple Watch Edition territory.  

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by Doug Parker
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Fossil Group 100 New Wearables 2016 Smartwatch watch activity tracker tory burch Kate Spade Adidas Burberry 3
Business

Fossil Group Planning To Introduce 100 Wearables In 2016

January 7, 2016

Fossil Group 100 New Wearables 2016 Smartwatch watch activity tracker tory burch Kate Spade Adidas Burberry 3

We have said it before, 2016 is poised to become the most important year for wearable technology yet – and we don’t seem to be alone in that thought. Fossil Group has announced plans for at least 100 new wearable devices this year. While you let that soak in, let’s look at what the company has been up to over the past few months. Since October, Fossil Watches has released 5 wearables devices across at least 12 SKUs. In November, Fossil Group acquired activity tracker company Misfit and has since announced 2 new products across at least 3 SKUs. That is right, at least 15 new wearables device SKUs in less than 3 months! This is a company that is prepared to take the wearable category very seriously!  

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by Doug Parker
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Amazon lab126 Wearable Restructuring Layoffs
Business

Amazon Shelves Products, And Maybe Wearable, Amid Layoffs

August 28, 2015

Amazon lab126 Wearable Restructuring Layoffs

Last year we covered news that Amazon was thinking of entering the wearables space. The future of that mysterious, unannounced product is now in question following layoffs and restructuring at Amazon’s Silicon Valley hardware development center, lab126. Despite the recent successes of Dash (the WiFi connected reorder button) and Echo (a connected speaker with virtual assistant), the complete failure of the Fire Phone hit the company hard. In Q3, 2014 Amazon took a $170 million charge on inventory and supplier commitments, disclosing that the company was sitting on $83 million of Fire Phone inventory. Largely in reaction to that massive failure, for the first time Amazon is laying off employees at lab126.

The layoff are part of a restructuring effort resulting in large number of projects being shelved. Some of the canceled projects have leaked to the press and include  

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by Doug Parker
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Business

DKNY Erases All Content From Social Media

August 13, 2015

DKNY PR Girl Social Media

If you have visited @DKNY this week on Twitter, you were welcomed by an empty feed. Mashable noticed on Tuesday that the fashion company had erased almost all existing content on Twitter, Instagram, and Tumblr. Preceding the purge, there had been a few cryptic messages from DKNY PR Girl, SVP of Communications Aliza Licht, hinting that changes were coming and to follow her personal Twitter handle. DKNY PR Girl proved to be an instant social media hit for the brand. With over half a million followers, the initially anonymous Licht brought a millennial voice to the brand (despite being a mother of two), live tweeting everything from TV shows to award shows. Her work defined what brands could do on social media and garnered several awards. Currently, the only recent social media posting from DKNY is a paned black and white photo with the caption “Work in progress” and the date “9.16.15”, the same date as the brand’s NYFW show. The change shouldn’t come as a huge surprise given the amount of flux at the company. In April, the designers of Public School, Maxwell Osborne and Dao Yi Chow, were appointed creative directors of DKNY and, in July, Donna Karan stepped down. It will be interesting to see what the voice that the fashion brand uses for social media moving forward. We are fearful given that the carefree avatar has been replaced with the company’s logo that it will take on a much more serious, corporate tone.

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by Doug Parker
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Google Alphabet Reorganization
Business

Google Forms New Parent Company Named Alphabet

August 11, 2015

Google Alphabet Reorganization

From search to wearables to self-driving cars to combatting aging, it is no secret that Google has their hands in a lot of pots! Typically a company the size of Google faces a challenge to stay as nimble as a tech leader needs to be. To help combat that and still allow the company to grow into new businesses, Larry Page made a surprise announcement last night that Google was restructuring. The new organization, which is reminiscent of Berkshire Hathaway, will create a new holding company, named Alphabet. Within Alphabet will be companies such as Google (which will oversee internet products such as search, maps, YouTube and Gmail), Nest, Calico, and Google X (which is pioneering commercial drones and self-driving vehicles). Wearables such as Google Glass will be placed inside Google X while Android and Android Wear stay part of Google (at least for the time being). Larry Page and Sergey Brin will head up Alphabet and Sundar Pichai (who had been SVP of products) will become CEO of Google.

The new structure is designed to allow the sub-companies to behave more like a startup. As tech companies sprawl to become more present in more parts of our life, their product offerings have also multiplied across business spaces. Companies such as Apple, Facebook, and Amazon (which provides everything from shopping to web services to consumer electronics) are facing similar sprawl issues to Google. It will be interesting to see if any other tech giants follow Google’s path and reorganize their company. The change is expected to take place later this year.

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by Doug Parker
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Business

Runtastic Finds A New Home With Adidas

August 6, 2015

Runastic Adidas Acquisition

It was announced yesterday that Adidas has acquired Austrian mobile fitness company Runtastic. The acquisition is valued at approximately $240 million and the company will be run as a separate entity within the sportswear giant (at least for the time being); that is great news for the app’s dedicated user base, which consists of 70 million registered users. Founded in 2009, Runtastic doesn’t always get the most attention, competing against apps from Nike and Runkeeper, but the company has been steadily increasing its stable of products over the past 6 years. The startup currently has 18 mobile apps in active development across multiple platforms. Having expanded beyond the namesake running app, Runtastic’s apps cover everything from building up your abs to helping you eat better. Runtastic has also gotten into the wearable space, recently launching Orbit, their daily fitness / sleep tracker.

Adidas currently offers their own activity tracking software, miCoach, and hardware, including smartwatches and connected soccer balls. It will be interesting to see how Adidas plans to integrate Runtastic into their already developed wearable ecosystem. $240 million is a lot to pay for overlapping products just to keep them separate; Adidas clearly has plans for Runtastic that it is not ready to share. It will be interesting to see how the company leverages the new talent and IPs. With the miCoach team and the Runtastic team there are clear redundancies and it is only a matter of time until Adidas has to make it clear what their path forward is.

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by Doug Parker
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Business

Yahoo Snatches Up Polyvore for $230 Million

August 4, 2015

Polyvore Yahoo Acquisition

Yahoo! Inc has announced a deal to acquire the shopping website Polyvore. The deal is rumored to be worth $230 Million plus another $40 million to retain key employees. The fashion site, which launched in 2007, is viewed by 20 million unique visitors per month, according to numbers released last year. Likely key to the purchase is Polyvore’s unique social take on shopping. The site features a huge selection of items available through partnerships with other retailers, such as Saks, Bergdorf, Nordstrom. Based off of what items users are “liking,” the site tracks and displays what types of styles are trending. Users can also create “sets.” These “sets” basically serve as looks that can be shared with other users and then be shopped from. The addition of Polyvore will bring a new community of active users into Yahoo’s fold and, perhaps more importantly, advertising relationships with over 350 retailers. While Yahoo tends to favor smaller acquisitions, mainly for talent, the tech company has made a few other large moves before, including the $1.1 billion purchase of Tumblr and $300 million for analytics firm Flurry. Surely, Polyvore’s dedicated user base is a bit nervous about what the acquisition means for them; hopefully there will be few adverse changes.

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by Doug Parker
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