A quick overview of Wearable Technology presented at the September meeting of The Wearable Tech Group Workshop

1. Wearable Technology – The Basics
Wearable Tech Group September Workshop
September 10, 2013
Ahmed Bouzid – Co-Founder & CEO, XOWi, Inc.
Weiye Ma – Co-Founder &CTO, XOWi, Inc.

2. Wearable Technology?
What’s the fuss all about?
 Isn’t everything that we wear already some sort of technology?
 A manufactured tool that solves a problem?
 Clothing
 Glasses
 Hearing aids
 Watches
 Cell Phones: Worn on belt

3. The Wearables in Our Lives
Clothing
 To: keep us warm
 To protect us from injury (shoes)
 Protect us from disease (gloves)
 Aesthetics - makes us look good
 Meaning: rings, expensive clothes
Glasses
 A bit more technologically sophisticated
 Improves our vision
 Protects against sun glare
Hearing aids
 Improves our hearing
The cell phone
 Worn on belt
Watches
 Tells time: Pocket watch, Wrist watch
 Digital watch: Time, timers, stop watches

4. Form & Function
Wearables =
Aesthetics + Pragmatics
 It needs to look good as well as do its job
 Balance changes from one wearable to
another
 Digital watches: Function more important than
form
 Sun glasses: Looking good is crucial

5. Why a Wearable?
 Don’t have to look for it: you forget it’s
there until you need it
 You don’t have to put it away: when you are
done with it, you just go on (unlike a
smartphone – you have to put it back where
it was)
 Can’t lose it (vs. smartphone device) – it’s
attached to your body
 It’s the cool thing (until it becomes
mainstream)

6. The New Wearables
Wearable is an electronic device that extends the functionality
of your smartphone




Smart Watches: Sony, Pebble, Samsung, etc.
Wrist Bands - UP
Google Glass
Bluetooth ear phones
Some new ones




Embrace+ Bracelet
Kapture audio recorder
Memoto camera
XOWI Voice Companion

7. The New Possibilities
Ever shrinking devices
 Large mainframes/minis/desktops/laptops/tablets/smartphone/wearables
 Size growing smaller -> opens new use possibilities
Forms rarely fully replace one another other
 Overlaps: tablet and laptop / smartphone and tablet / smartphone and wearables
 Each device has its strengths:
 Tablet vs. Laptop
 Smartphone vs. Tablet
 Smartphone vs. Wearables

8. Wearables Market Size
 $2.7 billion in revenue in 2012
 Expected to reach $8.3 billion in 2018
 Growing at CAGR ~ 17.71% from 2013 to 2018
 Consumer application sector accounting for
$2.4 billion
 Wrist-wear devices accounted for $876.70
million in revenue
 Product shipments ~ 2.7 billion units in 2018
 U.S. accounts for more than 80.00% of the
market

9. What’s Next?
 Expect an eruption of Wearables
 Apple will finally jump in early next year – Apple is behind the curve
 No clear leader will emerge: war
between Google & Apple will heat
up mid next year
 Innovation will come from small
startups
 Consolidations as markets and
categories emerge