When smartwatches first came out, we thought that they will be all over the market within a year or two. This is yet to happen as smartwatches are still not that mainstream and very few people are using them. The main reason for this is smartwatches do not serve a specific purpose that will make people see the need of having them.
According to a new report by the IDC, smartwatches are not really selling as many units as they did before. The research firm is reporting that smartwatch shipment dropped by over 50% last quarter (Q3 2016) compared to the same period last year. This is quite a huge drop in just 12 months and shows you that people are not buying smartwatches as they used to for unknown reasons.
During this past quarter (Q3 2016), about 2.7 million smartwatches were shipped compared to the same period last year when over 5.6 million units were shipped. According to the IDC, the decline is shipment is a result of two major factors.
First, Google has delayed the release of Android Wear 2.0. According to the research firm, this has left manufacturers confused as most of them are not willing to launch devices that will run on the old Android Wear version. Most manufacturers wanted Google to release the new OS so that the devices they launch during the holiday season come with Android Wear 2.0 out of the box.
The other reason for declined shipments is because they do not serve a clear and specific purpose. This is different from fitness bands that everyone knows what they do, smartwatches try to be everything at once and this is very confusing. Since most people already have smartphones, smartwatches do not really fit in their lives and are sort of futuristic products that you can live without.
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