Peter Nowak: Wearable technology proved to not be a good fit after all

Except for a few fitness buffs and early adopters, a cyborg-like future never quite materialised, writes Peter Nowak.

From left, Fitbit Force, Jawbone Up, Fitbug Orb, and the Nike FuelBand SE. Richard Drew / AP Photo

A few years ago, we were told we’d all be wearing high-tech glasses that could see through walls and instantly translate signs. We were also supposed to be sporting watches and bracelets that would monitor our vitals and alert us to any changes in our physiologies. Our shirts, trousers and even socks were to have sensors and connect to the internet.

Except for a few fitness buffs and early adopters, that cyborg-like future never quite materialised. As far as the mainstream is concerned, these so-called wearables look to be flopping harder than any category of technology in recent memory.

Google Glass, the search company’s super-spectacles, was perhaps the highest profile failure. Google pulled the plug on them early last year after they became social, privacy and fashion pariahs. But Glass wasn’t even the first, with Nike’s Fuelband fitness tracker – scrapped by the company several months prior – a possible contender for that title.

Now Jawbone looks to be joining the growing group of failed wearables with a recent report that it is selling off its unsold inventory of Up fitness trackers. The San Francisco-based company denies it is officially exiting wearables or going bankrupt, but it also has not released a new device in more than a year. Its future doesn’t look good.

Apple’s failure to release a new Apple Watch is also telling. The company launched its first wearable in April last year amid the expected wave of hype. The chief executive Tim Cook touted the Watch as Apple’s most important new product, but the com­pany still refuses to reveal sales numbers despite routinely disclosing them for other devices.

The company also regularly refreshes its other product lines several times a year, but with the Apple Watch getting lukewarm reviews and no follow-up yet, it looks like designers had to go back to the veritable drawing board.

The story of wearables’ journey from hype to underperforming reality is perhaps best illustrated by Fitbit’s share price. The category leader’s shares debuted on the New York Stock Exchange last June at US$29.68, but are now trading at less than half of that value.

The San Francisco-based company last month reported its first-quarter sales jumped 50 per cent, but it had to spend heavily to drive that growth. Operating costs nearly tripled and profit plunged 77 per cent.

Apple’s entry into the market is responsible for some of Fitbit’s woes, but so is the fact that wearables are proving to be novelties that consumers quickly tire of. A report from research firm Endeavour Partners found that about a third of fitness trackers sit unused six months after purchase, while Fitbit itself admitted in its IPO filings that only about half of its 20 million users at the time were still active.

Worse still for Fitbit, a study by researchers at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, attached to an ongoing class-action lawsuit against the company claims the pulse-measuring features in some of its devices are “highly inaccurate during elevated physical activity”.

Fitbit denies the accusations, but the researchers say they compared results against those gathered by an electrocardiogram. The report is fuelling suspicions that many consumers have had about vitals-tracking wearables and their overall accuracy.

None of this is to say that wearable technology is dead – the technology industry is not one to give up on something, after all. But the category is definitely at the end of its hype wave.

A sequel to the Apple Watch is a certainty, with a reveal pot­entially happening as soon as the company’s annual developer conference, which kicks off next week.

Google is also still repor­tedly working on a new iteration of Glass, as well as contact lenses that could help to treat cataracts and myopia. Jawbone, meanwhile, raised $165 million in new funding earlier this year that it is reportedly using to develop clinical-grade fitness trackers.

The first wave of wearables has come and gone and their makers have learnt some hard lessons. Consumers are sure to greet the second wave with more scepticism, as well as elevated demands about what such devices should deliver.

Manufacturers are going to have to offer wearables that don’t cost too much and have good battery life, are fashion-forward in their design and are accurate and actually useful. Put it all together and it makes for a tall order. No wonder we’re not cyborgs yet.

Peter Nowak is a veteran technology writer and the author of Humans 3.0: The Upgrading of the Species