What are the biggest trends in the wearables market today? Jen Quinlan, Wearables Specialist, explores the market from makers' and consumers' perspectives to identify areas of opportunity and misstep. If you'd like to contact Jen directly, please find her on Twitter (@quirkyinsider).

1. The Wearable Tech
Landscape | May 2014
JEN QUINLAN
@quirkyinsider
jenniferjmarshall@gmail.com

2. THE MARKET

3. Source: KPCB - Internet Trends Report, May 2013
Key attributes of wearable tech products

4. Wearables moving faster than the traditional
10 year tech cycle.
Source: KPCB - Internet Trends Report, May 2013

5. Players across ALL verticals are hungry to
get a piece of the WT pie.
Source: Beecham Research, June 2013

6. WT product manufacturing is happening w/
big and small players.

7. Wearable tech data interpreted on-the-go
with smartphones.
United States 2014 Projections:
● 90% have a cell phone, 58% have a
smartphone (Pew)
Worldwide 2014 Projections:
● 4.55B mobile phone users, 1.75B
smartphone users (eMarketer)
People on average:
● Reach for their phone 150x a day (Mary
Meeker, 2013)
● 63% check their phone every hour, 9%
every 5 min
● 97% check their phone when in the
presence of family or friends.
● 63% would be upset if they left home w/out
their smartphone
(Harris Interactive, 2013)

8. There are less barriers to create new WT
product prototypes.
Factors:
● Ability to 3D print prototypes
locally for rapid prototyping
● Cost of sensors and components
cheap, can go direct to
manufacturers to buy
● Bluetooth Low Energy as a
platform
● Battery life improvements
● Sensor kits to help developers
hack the tech to determine what’
s possible
● Funding platforms like
Kickstarter

9. Demand is growing and online
marketplaces for WT are emerging.

10. THE CONSUMER

11. Most people are interested in wearable tech
and desire to buy.
Awareness:
● 70% of consumers are aware of
wearable tech
● 15% are already using wearable
tech
WT product owners today are:
● Young (18-34)
● 75% consider themselves an
early adopter
● 29% HHI greater than $100K
● Fitness bands most popular
(61%), smart watches (45%),
and mHealth devices (17%)
Motivation to buy:
● Depends on the type of device and
perceived benefits it offers when
applied to their daily lives
● Smartwatch: convenience, extend
their smartphone addiction
● Fitness bands: monitor stuff (57%),
concern for health
Limiting factors:
● Cost: 72% said wish wearables were
less expensive
● Design: 62% desire other form
factors
● Fashion: 53% want products that
look more like jewelry
Source: Nielsen, March 2014.

12. Users haven’t shaped their preferences.
Willing to wear WT many places on the
body.
Source: Forrester, June 2013

13. Common questions a user asks
before buying a WT product
Wearable tech is still about the 4 P’s - product, place, price
and promotion:
● What benefit does it provide to me?
● Would I actually wear it? Daily?
● Am I willing to pay that much for it?
● Does it actually work?
● Are the insights it provides meaningful?
● Is it accurate?
● What will others think?
● Will I want to continue wearing it?
● Will it break? Is it reliable?

14. How a consumer thinks about a WT
product
Easy to transfer
data to your
phone?
Can it get
wet?
Will the
battery last?
Is it easy
to put
on?
Comfortable
to wear?
Look dumb
wearing it?
Is it cool?
Will others
like it?
Is it
fashionable?
Is it easy to
set up?
Is it
accurate?

15. But, a lot of products are
missing the mark.

16. Gaps in users’ expectations versus actual
product experience.

17. It will take time for society to get used to
wearables.

18. And it has to work...

20. Common Oversights w/
Wearable Products Today

21. The product is worn 24-7
and that is an intimate thing.
Oversight
Your relationship with the user is not completed after the
transaction is done and the product is shipped.
It’s personal.
Things people wear on their bodies daily are personal: a
wedding band, undergarments, glasses to help them see, a
favorite necklace, Spanx make them appear skinnier.
How to adapt:
● Your relationship with the user is daily AND evolving.
Listen to them and consider it a relationship - not a one-
time transaction.
● The product needs to be designed extremely well for
them to want to wear it 24-7.
● Think within the legacy of things worn daily (jewelry) -
they adhere to users’ sense of style and personal taste.
Body adornments are a reflection of who we are.

22. There is no “one size fits all”.
Focus on a target audience.
Oversight
Bodies are different. Tastes are different. So why are a
lot of WT products “for everyone”?
Who is your target audience?
Once the fad of putting on a wearable because it is new
has worn off, for users to continue wearing a product
they’ll have to be passionate about the benefits it
provides to them as an individual.
How to adapt:
● Have focus. Target a particular audience.
● Understand their pain points and needs.
● Involve them in your product design process.
● Market the solution to them.
● It’s iterative. Gather feedback, refine, repeat.

23. Fancy pedometer for sale.
Can it be accurate too?
Oversight
Many WT products on the market today directionally give
users insights on their activity levels, however they aren’t
able to provide an accurate reading for my body.
Opportunity
Many WT products will be returned or thrown away as
users understand they aren’t accurate or don’t have the
capabilities they desire. Quickly word of mouth will reign
for those products that are designed well and actually
work to track a range of activities.
Question to Answer
Do you have a short-term business strategy to sell a lot
of WT units and get bought out, or a long-term strategy to
be a market leader and up-sell software or services?

24. We’re selling the ability to
influence behavior with data.
Oversight
Some brands are approaching wearables as a
feature rich LIVESTRONG band. It’s deeper than
that. It is about enabling the user to achieve a
certain behavior or goal.
Opportunity
Don’t overlook the behavior psychology aspects of
your product.
Question Guide
● Is the product goofy or embarrassing to wear (Glass)?
● Why do I want to wear it?
● How do I feel when I wear it?
● Why will I continue to wear it?
● How do I relate to others when I wear it?
● What does it help me accomplish?
● What does accomplishing this goal mean to me?

25. Behavior is the
leading cause of
premature
death.

26. Go after a target
audience and address
THEIR needs.

27. Activity Trackers - Fitness / Wellness
What do they do?
● Activity Tracking
● Sleep Monitoring
● Heart Rate Monitoring
● Augmenting Nutrition
Plans
● Coaching
Who are they for?
● Professional & D1
Collegiate Athletes
● Team Training
● Individuals
● Families
● Weightloss Market
What’s the bigger markets?
● Professional / Collegiate Athlete
From Nike to Adidas, sporting equipment
manufacturers are seeking ways to help
athletes improve their performance. Also
sports analytics firms like Catapult (just
invested in by Mark Cuban) are popping up to
bring “Nate Silver” stats to all playing fields.
● Corporate Wellness Programs / Insurance
FitLinxx helps large corporations roll out
wearables with wellness programs to decrease
their insurance premiums while helping their
workforce get healthier.
● Weight Loss Market
It will be no time before Jenny Craig or Biggest
Loser are releasing their own branded
versions of Fitbit to appeal to their user base.

28. Insight: Integration of WT + Calorie Tracking
MapMyFitness was acquired by Under Armour in 2013. Get ready for calorie-
tracking for fitness sites to integrate with WT data to give users a full picture of
what they intake and burn.

29. Activity Trackers - Fitness / Wellness
Segmentation by Age
● Infant
Mimo, onesie that measures the baby’s
breath while it sleeps.
● Children
Disney Magic Bands’ ecosystem deliver
once-in-a-lifetime experiences. Tile
helps you protect things you fear losing.
Tracer is a wrist wearable to keep your
kids safe.
● Youth - Teen
NEX Band, modular wrist wearable
targeted at Tweens to Teens.
● Aging
CarePredict helps seniors maintain their
independence, GE / Intel several years
ago launched Care Innovations to tackle
similar problems. See article on
Wearables for Boomers.

30. Insight: Rise of the Quantified Family
Families will monitor their collective activities. Remote monitoring of oldest
family members to ensure they are safe. Stress or fitness goal monitoring for
parents. Entertainment experiences and safety monitoring of the youngest.

31. ● Weight Training
The PUSH Strength.
Kiwi Move
● Swimming
Instabeat.
● Running
Adidas miCoach system.
● Soccer
Adidas Smart Ball
● Snowboarding
Recon Snow 2
● Biking
Recon Jet. Turn signal gloves.
● Tennis
Babolat racquet
Activity Trackers - Fitness / Wellness
Segmentation by Age
The Push - strength system
Atlas Wearables - sensors combine data from three
separate axes along with your heart rate in order to
identify what exercise you are currently doing, and
whether or not you are using proper form

32. “We are revolutionizing the
game of soccer with the new
micoach technology for elite
teams.”
- Herbert Hainer, Group
CEO
http://www.catapultsports.com
Insight: Pro Athlete WT Market Heats Up
Professional athletes track all their metrics to gain a fraction of a competitive
edge. We’ll see pro teams increase awareness of tracking your body’s stats
with wearable tech. Consumers will gain comfort seeing pro athlete WT data
integrated on multimedia (like ESPN). Consumer products will follow, as they
want to mimic their athlete “heros” (I want to be like Mike, Bo Knows, etc.)

33. WEARABLES IN THE WORKFORCE
Example: Heads Up Displays
● Medical Professionals (see http://pristine.io)
Documenting surgeries, getting a second opinion from remote
specialists, disaster relief situation with specialist support from afar.
● Entertainment & Sports
First-person storytelling to enrich the fan’s experience and unlock
advertising opportunities. See The Pacers.
● Field Workers
See Vuzix & SAP example. Work nearly hands-free to improve
productivity, gain specialist second opinion in the field.
● Public Safety Workers / Civil Servants
Obtain just-in-time critical information that can make a big different in a
life or death situation, monitor safety of peers in the field (oxygen
levels of firemen).
● Customer Service
Personalized and premium customer service experiences to
differentiate the brand and add value. Think retail with luxury brands.

34. WEARABLES IN THE WORKFORCE

35. Wearables Helping People
with Different Abilities
Seizure detection and mobile alerts.
Hands-free computing with Glass for
quadriplegics.
Detection of others’ emotions to improve interpersonal
skills of people with learning disabilities.

36. Other ways to
differentiate your
WT product

37. Color Preference

38. Ability to Transform
http://www.misfitwearables.com

39. Ability to Personalize

40. Entry-Level vs. Luxury
https://toq.qualcomm.com $350
http://www.imsmart.com
$350
Pebble, $198
Martian Watch, $300
Ibis
Revealed at Mobile World
Congress 2014. Rumored to be the
first luxury smartwatch ($400+ price
point)

41. Materials
Look to jewelry industry for inspiration. Fashion designers will seek a variety of materials to make
wearable products nearly “hidden” within jewerly.

42. Co-Branding
The time will come when you don’t need to create your own wearable from scratch to have a
product in the market. You’ll just need to license the technology and co-brand it.

43. ‘Smart’ Wearables
We’ll see wearable products emerge that aren’t jammed full of the perfect algorithms. Instead, they’ll
come with the ability to go into a learning mode to understand your body and which exercises you do.
Atlas Wearables - sensors combine data from three separate axes
along with your heart rate in order to identify what exercise you are
currently doing, and whether or not you are using proper form.

44. Software makes the
WT meaningful.
Otherwise you’re just wearing a goofy bracelet.

45. A wearable tech product is
actually two products in one:
● The physical product worn with technology inside.
● The accompanying software to make the data generated
by the wearable meaningful to the user.
Both, combined, have to work well for a user to be happy.

46. http://otter.mutualmobile.com/493325070,462638897,461125277,564157241
How does WT product software
stack up?

47. Detail: Fuelband
http://otter.mutualmobile.com/493325070

49. Detail: Jawbone
http://otter.mutualmobile.com/461125277

51. http://otter.mutualmobile.com/462638897
Detail: Fitbit

53. Detail: Misfit Shine
http://otter.mutualmobile.com/564157241

55. Contact
Jen Quinlan
@quirkyinsider
jenniferjmarshall@gmail.com