Another day, another smart watch reaches its target on Kickstarter. And while the Omate Truesmart achieved nothing like Pebble’s record-breaking $10.2m, indeed its target was a far more modest $100k, it does indicate the way forward for the field
To be honest the Truesmart breaks little new ground in many areas. It has a 5mp camera, it has a sci-fi macho design ethos, it will run Android, it will offer GPS support (crucial for the fitness tracker market), it’s nominally waterproof (again useful for the swimmers out there) and its 4GB of internal storage can be boosted to 32GB using a microSD card. So much so familiar...
But what does make it stand out is that Omate says that it features a 3G chip and can be fitted with a micro-Sim card. Many of the watches currently on the market or in development rely on being paired with a smartphone for connectivity – this takes the logical step of putting the two devices into the single casing.
Gartner predicts the global wearable computer market could be worth $10bn by 2016, so it’s an important differentiator in a busy market as companies jockey for position. But the start-ups only have a limited amount of time to make a name for themselves before the truly bug guns turn their attentions to the market. Next out of the traps? Samsung is rumoured to be launching a model at Ifa in Berlin at the start of September. And with an alleged 275,000 pre orders for the Pebble, we’ll be keeping a close eye out at IBC for anyone wearing a smart watch of any variety.