Smartwatch Trends At CES 2020: The Wide World Of Wearables

Even though most of the hardware and software guts of smartwatches are similar, products in 2020 seem to focus on appealing to niche consumer groups - examples of those groups being consumers who primarily want a smartwatch for health-tracking or those that want a smartwatch for fitness training A case in point is Garmin, who, as a serious competitor in the wearables space, probably had more smartwatches to display at CES 2020 than any other company The latter company only recently started to use Wear OS with its Suunto 9 smartwatch, while at CES 2020 it introduces the 7, which is more affordable Wear OS-based sports smartwatch with a very pretty user interface.

The major selling points at CES 2020 for many smartwatch makers is, "We do this as well as X but at a cheaper price," and "This health-tracking feature or sensor, that was not before available in a smartwatch, is now available in our smartwatch." A lot of the latter news was in the area of health care where watches can now non-invasively track blood sugar for diabetics, determine if you've eaten too many calories today, cure your motion sickness, determine your hydration levels and body's fat content, and let your concerned loved ones know whether you as an aging person have eaten enough today or strolled around enough out of the house Even though the prolific legion of Asian smartwatch makers not bound by the exact same fears could more eagerly create features which rely on ongoing personal data capture, those companies seem to be more focused on copying what Apple, Garmin, and other top smartwatch makers are doing Some smartwatches are decidedly about fitness and so that brand might feel more comfortable in the fitness part of CES.

Another brand might see itself as an everyday essential part of a well-complimented home IoT and thus its smartwatch is placed in the "Home" part of CES Other areas of CES such as for telecommunications, medicine, or simply at large brand showcases have their own plethora of smartwatches The consumer electronics show didn't present me with any new smartwatches I immediately wanted to ditch an Apple Watch for, but there were at least a handful of interesting new smartwatch wearable products released at CES 2020 that I look forward to reviewing over the course of the year, as well as items I can recommend to many people for whom the Apple Watch may not be a good fit. Source