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Motorola

fitness activity tracker smartwatch dead future apple fitbit moto pebble
Business, Editorial, Watches, Wearable Technology

Moto Gone, Fitbit Down, Apple Unsure: What Is Happening With Wearables?

fitness activity tracker smartwatch dead future apple fitbit moto pebble

After years of false starts and stalled adoption, it was beginning to look like wearables were finally finding an audience. But the past week has brought nothing but sour news making one wonder if the connected devices are nothing but a fad. First Fitbit predicted a slow Holiday quarter, then Lenovo/Motorola announced the termination of the Moto 360, next Pebble shut down and sold off its assets for a pittance, and finally IDC released embarrassingly weak 3Q Apple Watch sales numbers. What is happening? Are wearables dead or is there more to it? While we might be a bit biased, we don’t see a reason for concern, yet. Let’s take a closer look at these headlines and the health of the industry as a whole.  

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2015 IFA Asus ZenWatch Samsung S2 Moto 360 Huawei Watch
Watches

Heavy Hitter Smartwatch Announcements Dominate IFA

2015 IFA Asus ZenWatch Samsung S2 Moto 360 Huawei Watch

With IFA (Europe’s version of CES) in full swing this week, there have been a slew of smartwatch announcements. We have known most of these were on the radar but in most cases pricing and availability have only now been made public. The 4 big announcements thus far relate to the Asus Zen Watch 2, the Huawei Watch, the Samsung Gear S2, and the Moto 360 2.

The Asus Zen Watch 2 is definitely the bargain of the bunch, with a price starting at $170 (oddly the larger model is the cheapest). This is a price drop from the original which is probably a good thing because we are not nearly as enamored with the successor’s design. When it launched, the Zen Watch was one of the best performing and looking Android Wear devices available. Asus has made minor tweaks to the aesthetics for this year, but they all seem to be for the worse. It almost feels like Asus got lazy. Functionality wise,  

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Watches

Moto 360 Sees Huge Price Drop

Moto 360 Table

If you have been eyeing the slick Moto 360 smartwatch, now might be the time to make the leap. The watch saw an impressive 34% discount this morning on Google’s storefront, bring the price down $85 to $165. The round screened Moto 360 has been one of the most popular wearables on the market since it was announced last spring. Despite some early issues, Motorola has continued to push out software updates that have have resolved a number of problems, including battery life. While the tea leaves can be read in lots of ways, this price drop is likely clearing out inventory for a rumored version 2. There has never been a better time to pickup the current model and don’t forget Android Wear support might be coming soon for iOS.

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Watches, Wearable Technology

Gold Moto 360 And Metal Bands Go On Sale

Gold Metal Moto 360 Band

 

After briefly appearing on Amazon last week, the metal band Moto 360s have gone on sale. They are available in either black or silver, or as Motorola oddly calls them, light or dark. The new all metal options sell for $299. Accompanying them is a new gold color option and a silver version of the watch with a brown leather band.

 

In addition to releasing the metal versions of the Android Wear watch, Motorola also announced two upcoming updates to the Moto 360.  First is a Motorola Connect update that will allow customization of the watch faces, including style and background.  Second is the addition of Moto Body to the watch. Moto Body is the companies activity tracking software, which keeps track of distance, calories, and heart rate.

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Watches, Wearable Technology

Motorola Officially Launches Moto 360 Watch (UPDATED)

Moto 360 Goes On Sale

 

UPDATE: Despite very mixed reviews, according to reports the Moto 360 sold out from all retailers within an hour of launch. There is no word on the number of units sold.

Starting today you can pickup a Moto 360 Android Wear smart watch for $250 at Best Buy stores or via the Motorola or Google Play online stores. There will be a $300 version with metal band released this fall. The watch was originally announced back in March but details such as price and battery life were only made available today. When the device was originally announced, its unique round design stood out against the competition. Six months later though, the watch’s “flat tire” shape has lost some of its original appeal, with LG recently having announced a truly round device. While the Moto 360 has an appealing feature set, its battery life apparently cripples the device.

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Designer Versus Brand Name Wearables
Wearable Technology

Designer vs. Brand Name: Is One More Important To The Success Of Wearables?

Brand vs DesignerIf you were to look at the product announcements coming out of IFA 2014 this week, you likely would believe that wearable technology was one of the hottest and most successful technology product segments out there. Sony has introduced its 3rd generation Smart Watch and Samsung has announced their 6th smart watch. Everyone is throwing their hat in the ring, so much so that the market is starting to get flooded with “me too” devices from companies such as Epson and Garmin. But the truth is that the segment has yet to have a break out hit. Nike and Fitbit have seen significant traction with their fitness bands and Pebble set Kickstarter records, but none are breakout stars, and Google is struggling to find public acceptance for Glass.

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Wearable Technology

Mobile World Congress Sees Wearable Tech Going Mainstream

Mobile World Congress

The biggest news coming out of Barcelona at this year’s Mobile World Conference was not a mobile phone, but instead wearable tech, specifically watches.  With Samsung having already tested the waters, albeit unsuccessfully, and Apple rumored to release a watch-like device later this year, a slew of companies arrived in Barcelona ready to show off their vision of smart, wearable devices.  From sport bands, to glasses, to watches, wearable seems to of officially had it’s coming out party! 

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