2015: The Year of the Wearable
As the decade has progressed we’ve seen our laptops get thinner, our televisions become curved, our iPhones more bendable and our socks able measure our cadence and striking pattern as we exercise… really?
Yes, even our footwear in 2015 is advancing just like Marty McFly demonstrated in Back To The Future.
Although 2014 was a big year for wearable technology, the products on display at the recent CES Showcase have shown that 2015 will be a defining year for wearables. With an industry worth $14 billion in 2014 alone, the wearable market is set to boom to a massive $70+ billion by 2024, it’s no surprise to see all the major players from Apple to Nike to Microsoft all promising big things in the coming year.
For those who were embarrassed by their Dad’s Bluetooth headset in the mid-2000’s you might want to look away now.
Those wishing to keep is classy…
French electronics company Withings have been one of the first to release a wearable that not only works well but also get major points in the fashion stakes.
The Withings Activité is main focus is counting your steps throughout the day in addition to the calories that you burn. Another feature for this unique watch in its ability to track your sleep time & analyse your sleep patterns.
If your dog needs to go on a diet…
Whistle has released a $100 dog collar for all the health conscious pooches out there, the data the device collects is basic, much similar to a Fitbit but it also has unique location tracking capabilities so the device doubles as a doggy Fitbit and a handy tool for finding your lost dog.
Before you laugh remember that in 2014, Americans alone spent over $58 billion on their pets and Whistle already has 100,000 of their devices on dogs already, a number which figures to grown exponentially after Whistle raised $25 million from venture capital funding.
For the athletes out there…
After humble beginning as a crowd-funding project Sensoria Fitness are preparing to launch their first in a series of wearable fitness tech in the middle of 2015.
The first product is the Sensoria Smart Sock, which, through Bluetooth, has the capabilities to track the way in which your foot strikes the ground whilst running and to track your cadence during a run.
Be prepared to spend big however, as the socks & ankle monitor start at a retail price of $149.