Jon Swartz, USA TODAY 6:01 p.m. EDT September 4, 2013
Samsung's Galaxy Gear smartwatch works in tandem with its Note 3 smartphone.(Photo: Eli Blumenthal, Special for USA TODAY)
[h=3]Story Highlights[/h]
SAN FRANCISCO — Hello, smartwatch. Goodbye, smartphone?
As unfathomable as it may seem today, the future of technology could be on your wrist instead of in your pocket.
Samsung and Qualcomm made emphatic plays for consumers' wrists Wednesday, with snazzy smartwatches that can take photos, make calls and scan the Web. Sony's SmartWatch 2 is due this month.
Apple and Google are likely to follow, presaging an era in which Americans may soon look like characters out of Star Trek, pressing buttons on newfangled watches to view videos, snap and send photos, look up stock prices and check their vital signs. Who knows? Even the merged Microsoft-Nokia could enter the fray.
Aside from a potential gold mine — Gartner estimates the smartwatch market will reach $10 billion by 2015 — technology companies envision a hot new category that could alter the way people consume and exchange data. It's analogous to what happened when Apple reshaped the phone and tablet industries with iPhone and iPad in 2007 and 2010, respectively.
Since then, Apple and its rivals have been searching for the Next Big Thing. In this case, it's a small device you can wear. And after millions of consumers ditched their watches for smartphones the past few years, suddenly the wrist is cool again.
Americans increasingly are wearing wristbands like Jawbone Up and FitBit Flex to monitor their health. Non-health functions on such devices are the next logical tech step, says Tom Kemp, CEO of Centrify, a computer-security company that partners with Samsung. "Why not a device that plays music while you jog?" he says. "It could also be an access card to gain entry to buildings."
What's most likely to happen is that smartphones and smartwatches will coexist and work in tandem — as Samsung's Galaxy Gear does with the Note 3 phone. Samsung officials view Gear as an extension of your smartphone to your wrist.
The interesting sidelight to Wednesday's watch blitz is the escalating turf war between Samsung and Apple. For the first time, Samsung has beaten Apple to the punch in a new category, ratcheting pressure on Apple, which is likely to announce a new iPhone next week.
Galaxy Gear also represents a new gadget designed to help Samsung supplant Apple as the consumer-electronics company. Expect an onslaught of clever Samsung ads to mercilessly drive home the point.
One funny tweet making the rounds yesterday said it all: "The Samsung Watch doesn't tell normal time. It just has a countdown until the Apple watch is available."
Samsung's Galaxy Gear smartwatch works in tandem with its Note 3 smartphone.(Photo: Eli Blumenthal, Special for USA TODAY)
[h=3]Story Highlights[/h]
- Sony's SmartWatch 2 is due this month
- Google and Apple are likely to follow
- The smartwatch market is forecast to reach $10 billion by 2015
SAN FRANCISCO — Hello, smartwatch. Goodbye, smartphone?
As unfathomable as it may seem today, the future of technology could be on your wrist instead of in your pocket.
Samsung and Qualcomm made emphatic plays for consumers' wrists Wednesday, with snazzy smartwatches that can take photos, make calls and scan the Web. Sony's SmartWatch 2 is due this month.
Apple and Google are likely to follow, presaging an era in which Americans may soon look like characters out of Star Trek, pressing buttons on newfangled watches to view videos, snap and send photos, look up stock prices and check their vital signs. Who knows? Even the merged Microsoft-Nokia could enter the fray.
Aside from a potential gold mine — Gartner estimates the smartwatch market will reach $10 billion by 2015 — technology companies envision a hot new category that could alter the way people consume and exchange data. It's analogous to what happened when Apple reshaped the phone and tablet industries with iPhone and iPad in 2007 and 2010, respectively.
Since then, Apple and its rivals have been searching for the Next Big Thing. In this case, it's a small device you can wear. And after millions of consumers ditched their watches for smartphones the past few years, suddenly the wrist is cool again.
Americans increasingly are wearing wristbands like Jawbone Up and FitBit Flex to monitor their health. Non-health functions on such devices are the next logical tech step, says Tom Kemp, CEO of Centrify, a computer-security company that partners with Samsung. "Why not a device that plays music while you jog?" he says. "It could also be an access card to gain entry to buildings."
What's most likely to happen is that smartphones and smartwatches will coexist and work in tandem — as Samsung's Galaxy Gear does with the Note 3 phone. Samsung officials view Gear as an extension of your smartphone to your wrist.
The interesting sidelight to Wednesday's watch blitz is the escalating turf war between Samsung and Apple. For the first time, Samsung has beaten Apple to the punch in a new category, ratcheting pressure on Apple, which is likely to announce a new iPhone next week.
Galaxy Gear also represents a new gadget designed to help Samsung supplant Apple as the consumer-electronics company. Expect an onslaught of clever Samsung ads to mercilessly drive home the point.
One funny tweet making the rounds yesterday said it all: "The Samsung Watch doesn't tell normal time. It just has a countdown until the Apple watch is available."