It’s hard to believe that 2016 is already here. As with every new year before it, a whole slew of fresh updates and advancements in the wearable tech industry are soon to arrive. CES kicks off in just the first couple weeks of the year where we get to see a lot of exciting new products and concepts from various manufacturers in the tech industry. You can be sure we’ll see plenty of new wearables and smartwatches unveiled.
Of course, what we’ll really see during CES we don’t know for sure. We’ll have to wait until the event kicks off. That doesn’t mean we have absolutely no clue at all what’s coming, in fact quite the opposite. We’re going to discuss some of the future trends and patterns we know we’ll see over the coming year.
Brace yourselves, because we definitely have another exciting year ahead of us!
VR Tech Is Going to Be a Big Deal This Year
Thanks to products like the Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, Playstation VR – or Project Morpheus – and the Microsoft HoloLens we’ll be seeing a whole lot more happening in the VR market this year. Not only does that mean more VR tech and headsets will be launched by competitors, but it also means that games, movies, and software that utilizes such technology will see a boost.
Sony alone has already announced a variety of games that will support their VR gaming platform which will be powered by the Playstation 4. Frankly, we cannot wait to dive head first into some of the fully realized worlds.
Expect to see a lot more as the year goes on. Surely we’ll see some new gear at CES in the next week or so, as well.
Wearable Tech Will Continue to Grow In Popularity
According to eMarketer, 2015 was a big year for wearables, smartwatches and fitness trackers. A total of 39.5 million adults in the US over the age of 18 regularly used wearable devices, which was an increase of 57.7 % compared to 2014. In other words, a lot of people started using wearables this year.
That popularity will only continue to grow over the coming year, as the research firm believes that 81.7 million adults will be using wearables by the year 2018.
Most wearables offer a level of convenience that you may not ever understand until you have one in your hands. Once you do, though, you’ll be a wearable user forever.
Smartwatches and Dedicated Fitness Trackers Will Continue to Co-Exist
There are smartwatches that have fitness tracking features baked in, but if we’re being honest they’re not always the most accurate. Most fitness enthusiasts prefer to use dedicated devices to track their health like a Fitbit or Jawbone.
Some predicted that when the Apple Watch launched, we would see the end of dedicated fitness devices but that just never happened and it probably won’t for some time. Over the next year, we’ll definitely continue to see fitness trackers and smartwatches co-existing.
According to IDC, Apple sold about 7.5 million Watches during the first two-quarters of 2014, while Fitbit sold over 9.2 million trackers during the same period. Why does that information matter? You can see right off the bat that dedicated fitness trackers are still just as popular – if not more so – than smartwatches. As more wearables flood the market in 2016, it’s likely we’ll see that trend remain.
Fitbit Will See Some Competition
Speaking of fitness trackers, there’s no doubt that Fitbit is one of the most successful brands in the industry. This year, however, things might heat up a lot more with tons of competing brands releasing similar devices.
Xiaomi’s Mi Band is ridiculously priced at $15, and it’s a great device. Then there’s Garmin, TomTom, Jawbone, and many others.
Adversely, this means that Fitbit will need to offer new features to remain ahead of the competition, which will likely come in the form of more advanced sensors and hardware. We’re talking about sensors that could detect blood pressure, blood sugar levels, stress, or other health related data.
Wearable Tech Payments Will Be More Viable
There are several wearables out there that allow you to pay directly from your device – namely the Apple Watch with Apple Pay. Sadly, this technology has yet to be adopted by retailers and brands. In fact, if you try to pay with a smartwatch chances are the cashier will look at you like a deer in the headlights.
With platforms like Apple Pay, Samsung Pay, bPay and Google Wallet gaining more traction it’s likely that this technology will become accepted in more stores and markets. Not to mention the fact that Mastercard is now backing tech from Ringly and Nymi. With one of the biggest players in the digital payment industry supporting wearable tech, there’s no way it can slide under the radar for much longer.
Plus, wouldn’t it be nice to grab a drink or two after your morning run without carrying your wallet? Imagine swiping your fitness tracker or smartwatch on an NFC-enabled payment strip and that’s that!
Smart Home Tech Will Soon Be Integrated With Wearable Tech
Imagine a home that can sense when you’re just about back from your run so it turns down the temperature in your home to a more comfortable setting. Or, perhaps a light fixture that will turn on and off when you’re within proximity of it saving you the time of turning on and off lights as you come and go. Sure some of this stuff is borderline lazy, but there’s no denying the convenience of a smart home, especially one that’s connected to the internet of things.
While smart home tech is still in its infancy — companies are working out the kinks behind the technology and trying to find a universal standard – it is being adopted more and more by consumers. One of these days we’ll wake up and everything will be “smart” in the technology sense. That won’t happen tomorrow, but you can bet this year will be big for smart home tech with innovative devices and industry advancements galore.
What we’re expecting to see is a deeper integration between wearable tech and smart-home products. It will involve devices that can talk and signal to one another to offer convenience and efficiency. We could drone on all day about possible scenarios, but hopefully, you get the gist of it by now.
2016 and New Wearable Tech, Here We Come!
Undoubtedly, there will be a lot of things happening this year that no one could predict, and who knows there’s even the chance that we’ll be wrong about some of the things we discussed above. That’s what is so exciting about the beginning of every year, you never really know where things will be once you reach the end.
One thing is for certain, we have another exciting year ahead of us that will be filled with amazing technological advancements and innovative projects. We can’t wait to see what comes out of the tech industry this year and what new gadgets are available for our grubby little paws to fuss over. What about you? What do you think will happen this year? What new devices and tech are you looking forward to?