Across the 5 markets surveyed, of the 62 percent of smartphone users who do not own any wearables today, 35 percent are interested in buying fitness trackers and smartwatches. Purchase intention is highest in China, where half of smartphone users are planning to buy these devices. Whilst smartphone users in most markets predict that it will take at least one year for the first generation of wearables to go mainstream, smartphone users in the US already think that fitness bands and activity trackers have gone mainstream.In addition, South Koreans see smartwatches as having gone mainstream already this year.
Half of users of wearables share the data from their wearables online, and 60 percent feel in control of the data they are sharing and who has access to it. To provide actionable insights and personalized benefits, 67 percent are open to having third parties use their wearables data, as long as the process is anonymous and they get some value in return. However, past Ericsson ConsumerLab studies have found that users are less willing to share their data with third parties if it is personal and identifiable.
Opinion: Will Smartphones be Replaced by Wearables
This willingness does vary, based on level of fitness. Half of those who are fit and exercise often are open to sharing data, whilst only a third of those who are unfit and do not exercise are willing to do so. Therefore, as wearables adoption goes beyond early adopters, we might see a shift in openness to the sharing of wearables data connected to health and wellness.
However, 53 percent of existing users of wearables, and an equal proportion of non-wearables owners, also acknowledge that it is very likely that wearables will be vulnerable to viruses, hacking and data breaches in the next 5 years.
The current generation of fitness bands and smartwatches are just the beginning of a momentous change. Smartphone users believe that wearable technology will expand in more numerous and impactful ways than smartphones have in the past 10 years. They believe wearables could eventually replace existing items such as the traditional wristwatch, medical equipment like blood and glucose monitors or even house or car keys.
So far wearables have been a secondary screen to smartphones. However, as wearables become more independent in terms of factors such as connectivity, the smartphone screen may become less significant.
Early signs of this change are already visible today, with half of existing smartwatch users expecting that wearables will be standalone devices, without the need for smartphones. In fact, 4 out of 10 smartwatch users in our survey already spend less time looking at their smartphone screen because notifications are now available on their smartwatches.
However, among the smartphone users who predict smartphones will be replaced, half say they expect to carry multiple connected wearable devices on their body in the future. Today, 25 percent of existing users of wearables already own more than one wearable device, and 1 in 10 already owns 4 wearables.
For now, health and fitness wearables represent the first step that consumers will take into the wearables future. However, consumers are confident that wearables can break away from health and fitness as a category, and also from just extending smartphone and tablet experiences. Consumers are not sure that the wearables industry has found the use cases that will drive mass adoption though; and hence they believe the wearable technology inflection point stands well beyond 2020 today.
Wearables may be for general use, in which case they are just a particularly small example of mobile computing. Alternatively, they may be for specialized purposes such as fitness trackers. They may incorporate special sensors such as accelerometers, heart rate monitors, or on the more advanced side, electrocardiogram (ECG) and blood oxygen saturation (SpO2) monitors. Under the definition of wearable computers, we also include novel user interfaces such as Google Glass, an optical head-mounted display controlled by gestures. It may be that specialized wearables will evolve into general all-in-one devices, as happened with the convergence of PDAs and mobile phones into smartphones.
The wearable computer was introduced to the US Army in 1989 as a small computer that was meant to assist soldiers in battle. Since then, the concept has grown to include the Land Warrior program and proposal for future systems.[73] The most extensive military program in the wearables arena is the US Army's Land Warrior system,[74] which will eventually be merged into the Future Force Warrior system.[75] There are also researches for increasing the reliability of terrestrial navigation.[76]
The information gathered from wearables helps coaches make data-driven decisions to perfect their training quality, avoid injuring athletes and improve the physical and psychological shape of their players (27). When any major invention is introduced into an environment, there are inevitable ensuing effects and the sports world is no exception. The expansion of wearables in sport has resulted in various physical, economic and societal effects, many of which are beneficial and some of which are concerning. To guarantee the best experience for athletes of all levels, this paper aims to review and organize these consequences of wearable devices in sports. This work will also help designers and developers look towards the future and decide next steps in this niche setting.
It is important that as wearables develop and become more comprehensive, they do not grant any physical advantages that enhance performance unethically. It is, and will continue to be, imperative to invariably revisit sports legislation on what constitutes cheating versus just a competitive advantage. Protecting the integral values of fairness and impartiality in sports is of utmost importance.
When disabled athletes using wearables as assistive technology compete in events with able-bodied athletes, there are always qualms regarding the level of advantage they are receiving and if it is inequitable. For example, Oscar Pistorius competed in the Olympics, running multiple track and field events using two advanced prosthetic legs (32). Yet, the German Athletics Association concluded that a long jumper could not compete against able-bodied athletes because his prosthetic was deemed too advantageous (15). There are grey areas in this domain, but for the most part, the consensus has been that if most involved parties feel the wearable is fair for all athletes, it will be accepted (32). The ultimate goal of wearables for disabled athletes is to provide them an equal opportunity to appreciate both the pleasure and competitiveness of sports, and more development will help level the playing field.
Even outside of professional organizations, data visualization from wearables in sports is prevalent. Blogs like FiveThirtyEight and companies like The New York Times have expanded through this avenue (38), analysing aspects of March Madness, rankings in college football and Major League Baseball. Academics have also experienced more opportunities as data visualization research is vital in validating these new techniques. There are a growing number of publications at several respectable conferences, including the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference (38). Widely available data on athlete positioning caused a dramatic increase in scientific publications on tactical analysis (27). At universities, academic departments are consulted by the athletic department to assist in making conclusions from wearable data (26). Several new technologies have not been properly assessed, so there are opportunities for rigorous academic peer review of these products (37) as well as positions in industry for quality control. Companies that undertake this research will experience more customer satisfaction, ergo a higher return on investment. Career opportunities are expanding for user experience designers and frontend software engineers to collaborate with athletes to improve the user interface and provide feedback without hindering focus (14).
Although the pace of development seems to have slowed recently, smartphones will continue to evolve. Some predict they will become like remote controls for our lives while others think that they could disappear into wearable devices such as glasses or watches.
Artificial intelligence will become even more powerful in the next 10 years and will play a very important role in our lives. If AI is already a key feature in current smartphones, in areas such as voice assistants, photography, augmented reality or real-time language translation, future devices will be even smarter. 2ff7e9595c
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