YES, BUT WHAT'S THE TIME?
'Tis the season of the smartwatch
MANY years ago, at the dawn of digital watches for the masses, I was given what seemed a young sciencefiction fan’s dream device: a calculator watch. For the first 48 hours of ownership, it appeared to be a thing of beauty, a joy to behold, and a badge of entry into a technology elite.
But the novelty wore off faster than a cellphone signal in a thunderstorm.
Fast forward a few decades. Past the Seiko TV watch. Past the Casio watches with built-in thermometers and Japanese translators. Past the Timex Datalink that transferred diary data from your computer to your watch …
What do you mean you’ve never heard of them? They all represented nothing less than the future of the watch!
Never mind. You’re about to get another chance to ignore the watches that are going to change the world.
On Wednesday, Samsung unveiled the Galaxy Gear, a watch with a 4.1cm ultra-sharp OLED screen, 1.9 Megapixel camera, and running on a version of Android software that allows it to synchronise with a phone and tablet.
A pedometer, accelerometer and 4GB storage makes it both a digital diary and a fitness tracker and a voice recognition engine and … Oh yes, it tells the time, too. We probably won’t commemorate September 4 as Smartwatch Day. Sony has had its Android SmartWatch out for almost 18 months already, with e-mail functionality and custom apps available in the Google Play Store.
In January, the Pebble epaper smartwatch for Android and iOS was the darling of the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. But it is rare that a few hours separate two significant entries in a technology category.
On the very same day as the Galaxy Gear launch, a competing Android phone, the Toq, was unveiled by Qualcomm, the company that makes the chips powering most smartphones today — including those of Samsung.
It uses the company’s Mirasol display technology, a kind of e-ink that uses little power, and allows for interchangeable displays. It synchronises with Android smartphones, allowing the user to scan through content on the phone via the watch, without removing the handset from a pocket or bag. Cue the alarm bells from a software security industry just itching to sell protective solutions to this new user category.
Less than a week after the Gear and Toq started the, er, clock ticking for this new industry segment, the big name in consumer revolutions will also probably enter the time fray. On Tuesday, when Apple is likely to launch the new iPhone at its Cupertino headquarters in California, it is expected to unveil a version of the connected watch.
The iWatch, iBand or iStrap, depending on how lateral the thinking gets around naming conventions, will probably run on a version of iOS software, and synchronise with the iPhone and iPad.
Because it’s Apple, chances are a few million people may well be willing to wear the device. Same applies to the Galaxy Gear: Samsung is expected to ship 500 000 units at launch. Qualcomm is a little more aware of history: it’s only shipping a few tens of thousand.
It may well be argued that these watches have a far better chance of taking off than their less-smart ancestors, since they are intimately connected with other devices. However, they are as intimately disconnected from the most important of all objects in the user’s pocket: the wallet.
The Galaxy Gear and Toq both sell for around $299, the Sony SmartWatch for $150, and the Apple equivalent will probably fall somewhere in between. These are typical selling prices for phones.
Finally, the clock is ticking for the smartwatch industry.
Arthur Goldstuck is founder of World Wide Worx and editor-in-chief of Gadget.co.za. Follow him on Twitter on @art2gee