Smartwatch Powerhouses Meet Their Match with Startups as Wearable Tech Hits Mainstream -- Michael Dowd

This article is part of a series inspired by GroupM What’s Next 2013 , an annual event for marketing and media executives taking a forward look at media and advertising, and what brands should be preparing for in order to succeed.

Wearable technology is presented as a single trend, but it is in fact the convergence of two trends – fitness tracking and smartphone connectivity. The next wave of wrist technologies is trying to bridge this divide with broad-spectrum, multipurpose devices. The problem is that these devices are marketed for two very different consumers – outdoor enthusiasts and technology geeks. The Galaxy Gear is far too bulky to wear during rugged exercise, and fitness trackers lack the depth in functionality expected of smartwatches. While I prefer the simplicity of fitness trackers, I have learned not to underestimate consumer appetite for additional screens. Even though fitness tracking is the more established trend of the two, the smartwatch will eventually consume it and become the hub of wearable technology.

Unfortunately, the all-purpose smartwatch is proving to be a more difficult proposition than expected, as evidenced by the tepid receptions to early products from Samsung and Sony. Samsung attempted to put nearly all of the functionality of a smartphone into a wrist-based device, and the result was a clunky device with poorly executed functionality, the most glaring example being the camera embedded into the band, adding additional size and weight for the sake of a 1.9 megapixel camera. When the Galaxy Gear is, by definition, tethered to a smartphone with a 13 megapixel camera, the cost/benefit analysis becomes cloudy at best. The next round of smartwatch innovations won’t add features so much as edit the existing ones. This means taking the essential components of both fitness bands and smartphones and optimizing those features for the minimal real estate available on ones’ wrist.

Fortunately for consumers, fitness sensors are becoming smaller and consuming far less power, allowing manufacturers to pack more into less. There is immense potential in the application of ANT+ and similar open protocols as the future for these multipurpose wearable devices. ANT+ is an ultra-low energy standard built specifically for health and fitness sensors to allow for the efficient and standardized communication of data across devices. Each type of ANT-based sensor – accelerometers, oximeters, thermometers, calorimeters – has a fixed data profile that is recognizable by any device equipped to accept ANT signals. It is designed to maximize interoperability and minimize the redundancy of development across applications.

The benefit of these protocols to the consumer is that they remove the need for a smartwatch to do everything and instead allow it to understand anything. The watch will truly become a hub, accepting information from ANT+ sensors throughout the users’ wardrobe – pedometers in their shoes, heart rates from their chest bands – regardless of the brand or model.

The most promising device I’ve seen to date is the WearIT, which will be officially released at CES 2014. Though still larger than many consumers may prefer, it has a distinct fitness aesthetic while also performing the essential functions of the smartwatch – music, social media and time. It is embedded with an accelerometer, magnetometer and pedometer, and has a development ecosystem allowing it to incorporate sensor data from across the ANT+ product line. In doing so, WearIT successfully edited down both the hardware and software of its device while preserving the elements which are most important to both demographics.

WearIT and other startups face an uncertain future in the face of behemoths such as Samsung and Sony. But they are performing a great service to consumers by helping to show those companies how fitness tracking and smart functionality can co-exist in a single device. Until the major players resist the need to embed cameras into my wrist and loosen their restrictions on cross-device compatibility, I plan on sticking to the startup fringes of this revolution.

Michael Dowd is Chief Technologist for GroupM Next, the media innovation specialist division of GroupM that provides thought leadership, industry perspective, operational support, and scalable business solutions to GroupM agencies (Maxus,MEC,Mediacom and Mindshare). Michael monitors the trends which are driving where and how consumers interact with technology and develops perspective on how those changes will impact GroupM brands. As part of this process, Michael manages first-party and third-party technology expansion to ensure that GroupM advertisers are equipped to take advantage of new opportunities afforded by these trends.

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