Research firm ABI Research has issued a new report looking at the smart watch market for 2013. According to the company, over 1 million smart watches will ship this year. ABI Research says that while the wearable computing market failed to take off in the past due to things like ugly watches, watches that were too bulky, and watches with poor functionality; things are set to change this year.
ABI is predicting that over 1.2 million smart watches will be shipped this year alone. The company believes that the wearable computing device will be split into four categories including notification type, voice operational smart watches, hybrid smart watches, and completely independent smart watches. The company considers notification type devices to be products such as the MetaWatch and Cookoo.
Those devices offer alerts for incoming calls, messages, and other notifications. Voice operational smart watches will allow users to start and stop calls and issue commands to the watch using their voice. Products in the standalone category include watches such as the Martain smart watch. Standalone smart watches will have their own OS and will move beyond being a smartphone accessory alone.
You can bet that some of these standalone smart watches will run the Android operating system and Android-powered smart watches fit into the other categories are expected as well. There are already some basic Android-powered smart watches available on the market, such as the offerings from Pebble. Additional products are expected this year from several manufacturers.
[viaABI Research]
