Despite the hype, smartwatches will not catch on this Christmas

Wearable devices will remain be the sidekick and not the hero, until at least 2017.
Even though devices such as the Galaxy Gear - which hit 800,000 sales in just two months – are in the limelight at the moment, the hype will not last according to Gartner.
Premium pricing paired with an unclear value proposition will drive customers more towards tablets and fitness bands, causing sales of smartwatches to plummet this holiday season.
Currently due to the lack of apps plus the bulky ‘unstylish’ appearance of wearable gadgets, they will remain a companion device to other more user-friendly devices such as tablets and smartphones until at least 2017.
Annette Zimmermann, principal research analyst at Gartner, said: “Samsung and other well-known vendors have recently entered the smartwatch space, yet the products we’ve seen so far have been rather uninspiring in terms of design, available apps and features.”
However Gartner has said that some of the smartwatches currently available do have the potential to replace a smartphone as they benefit from all technologies down to cellular connectivity, message display, initiate voice calls and stream music.
However due to their primitive, bulky design, short battery life, and price they will struggle to achieve mass-market appeal.
Zimmer added: “Users expect more than just more convenience from a new product category that claims to be innovative and priced at $200 to $300. The same price will fund basic tablets with a good feature set.
“For the coming holiday season users are more likely to pick the basic tablet option rather than a smartwatch as the value proposition is clearer.”

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