Smart watches will overtake fitness trackers to become the most popular wearable device, with greater compatibility with the smart home fuelling growth, a new report has claimed.
ABI Research said Apple and Google are helping to drive integration of their watch devices with smart home platforms such as iControl, Alarm.com and Samsung’s SmartThings.
It said while fitness trackers currently account for two thirds of the wearable market, their dominance will be challenged by smartwatches. Adoption will be driven by APIs being opened to allow interoperability between wearables and the likes of home heating, locks and lighting.
Researchers highlighted Bluetooth and Wi-Fi were the two technologies that would benefit from the growth in wearables.
However, Adarsh Krishnan, Senior Analyst at ABI Research, warned: “The biggest challenge is delivering wearables value in the smart home while facing existing limitations such as device interoperability issues, closed platforms, limited processing and battery capacity.
“In the short term, wearables application in the smart home will focus primarily on delivering time critical notifications and alerts from smart home security applications. Wearables’ role in the smart home will deliver significant value when physiological data points collected from wearable devices are leveraged to deliver services such as home healthcare, assisted living and user personalisation.”
Last month, Ericsson, SK Telecom and Sony Mobile launched a research project to develop new kinds of wearable technology that interact with LTE networks. The telcos focused on the use of lifestyle and wellness apps using the likes of accelerometers, indentification, pulse meter and GPS functionalities.