One of the hardest things to predict with any technology, is what’s going to be popular in the future.
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We recently asked a bunch of industry movers and shakers which upcoming wearables they’re most excited about. However, what about the average Joes out there that are actually going to buy the products and won’t just be sent one for free to review? That’s what First Insight has been delving into with a new study of the most anticipated wearables of the next 12 months.
The survey questioned 350 people about what they thought of 15 upcoming wearable devices, asking them to rank them from most exciting to least and to give them a value score. The most popular of the lot, was the Nabu Razer, a fitness tracking smartwatch set to arrive later this year, which had a value score of 9/10. And that’s the key point, value was the most important aspect for many of those surveyed. While the Razer is just $75, many other wearables are much more expensive.
“It’s a bit counterintuitive that value is a more critical factor than design, and price is a major component of the value of a product,” First Insight CMO Jim Shea said in a statement sent to CNET. “Designers tend to think more about making something people will love instead of thinking about the price, but the value quotient — the combination of price and features — is a better predictor of whether or not a product will sell.”
One of the most popular wearables was the upcoming bluetooth enabled Dash headphones, which we reviewed a few weeks back, but due to its near $300 price tag, many people were turned off.
The most popular products overall were mostly fitness related, suggesting that that’s what many consumers see wearables as useful for at the moment, despite the many benefits we’ve seen them bring in all sorts of roles. All of the top four products offered fitness or health tracking and were under $100. Conversely, the worst reviewed products were all over $100, with the most expensive of those shown, the Recon Jet sunglasses, costing just under $600, coming in last.
Regardless of which wearables end up being the most popular though, the industry as a whole is expected to expand dramatically over the next few years and will be worth an estimated $19 billion by the time we reach 2018 according to some analysts.
