Razer began selling Anzu smart glasses, its first eyewear product, through Best Buy Friday. A touch interface on the frame's side controls music playback, manages calls and activates the paired smartphone’s voice assistant, said the gaming hardware company. Apps offer equalization adjustments for improved clarity or a treble boost, latency settings, battery status and firmware updates. Battery life is given as five hours. Two sizes are available.
Lucyd introduced smart glasses that let users listen to music, take phone calls and communicate with a voice assistant via noise-canceling mic. Users activate a digital assistant by tapping the device. The glasses are compatible with prescriptions, said the company Friday. Battery life is 6.5 hours, it said. Prices start at $149.
Smart glasses maker Vuzix signed a supply agreement for ongoing business with a large U.S. general merchandise retailer, said the vendor. The initial order for M400 smart glasses has shipped and will generate “low six-figure revenue” for the wearables maker during the current quarter, it said. The unnamed customer is using the glasses to perform remote fulfillment center training for its employees, Vuzix said.
Wearables, including adult smartwatches, sports watches and hearables, have grown in an overall 2020 CE market that has “trended towards decline,” reported Futuresource Thursday. “Consumers have been exploring alternatives to the gym, buying home workout equipment, and paying attention to a wide range of digital health products,” said analyst Stephen Mears, highlighting hearables with activity and health tracking functionality and wrist wearables with advanced biometric sensors. Hearables will account for more than 55% of global wearables market shipments this year in the category comprising wearable smartphones, extended reality head-mounted displays, fitness devices and connected watches. Mears cited opportunities in hearing correction wearables, with more than 400 million people worldwide having hearing loss, half under 50; of those, fewer than 10% own a hearing aid. Wrist wearables have potential in monitoring high blood pressure, respiratory disease, diabetes and cardiovascular disease, a “lucrative” opportunity for vendors, if managed correctly, he said. Though the ear is better for tracking health indicators such as heart rate and blood pressure, wrist wearables are marketed as fitness and health products and have screens allowing consumers to engage with data in real time, he noted. The future for wearables involves an “integrated ecosystem of wrist and ear worn wearables, with biometric tracking happening in the ear, while activity tracking and data visualisation/processing will happen on the wrist,” said Mears: “This ecosystem of products will prove to be more compelling for consumers than either device could on its own.” Apple's and Fitbit’s efforts to leverage their smartwatch platforms through service subscriptions point "to where the category as a whole is heading in the next few years."
JVCKenwood prelaunched a crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo for two wireless smart headsets that provide “hands-free access to two of the world's most recognizable virtual assistant platforms,” said the company Friday, without citing Alexa or Google Assistant by name. Both headsets are true wireless models with a “full range of functions,” including making and receiving phone calls and controlling smart devices, it said. The headsets enable voice commands to be “easily understood and executed,” using a “smart microphone system paired with a proprietary algorithm, and active noise canceling technology.”
Despite scaled-back production due to COVID-19, global wearables shipments are on pace to grow 14.5% to 396 million this year, reported IDC Friday. The researcher forecasts a compound annual growth rate of 12.4% to 637.1 million shipments in 2024. Hearables demand offset lower demand for smartwatches and wristbands in the first half, and will have a 14.1% CAGR. Drivers include additional vendors, more smartphones with Bluetooth connections and no headphone jacks, lower prices and expanding uses: health and fitness monitoring, smart assistants and connection to home and work IoT systems. The most robust wearables growth through 2024 will come from smartwatches. The operating system landscape will shift after Google’s acquisition of Fitbit and more vendors join the Wear OS ecosystem, IDC predicted. Samsung’s Tizen will “slowly gain share” with Galaxy watches, while Apple will benefit from the Watch SE in the midtier. Wristbands will expand 2.4%, as average selling prices dip below $40.
Ams unveiled a sensor that measures blood oxygen saturation and heart rate for use in earbuds, smartwatches and wristbands. The AS7038RB’s small size, integrated functionality and “high-performance signal chain” make it suitable for OEMs developing health monitoring applications in space-constrained consumer or medical products, said the company. The sensor package houses a photodiode, four LED drivers, an analog front end and a sequencer.
Bose added three designs to its Frames sunglasses line with speakers embedded in the temples. The sweat- and weather-resistant Tempo is designed for outdoor workouts; Tenor and Soprano are for everyday use. The Frames have polarized lenses, Open Ear Audio technology 5.5-hour battery life, phone controls, USB-C charging cable and volume-optimized equalization, said the company. Prescription lenses add $127 to the $249 base price.
As a monitor without a direct response mechanism, Amazon’s Halo “better be good at monitoring,” Gartner analyst Ranjit Atwal emailed. The Halo Band and service, announced Thursday (see 2008270007), “might be the ideal device in a COVID-19 environment for health and fitness monitoring at a relatively low cost,” said the analyst, but “not having a stand-alone device but dependent on the smartphone is problematic.” A personal health gadget is “interesting,” with people reluctant during the COVID-19 pandemic to go to gyms or other indoor locations. On the competitive $3.99 monthly fee, Atwal said quality of the apps used will determine the value; the service plan is “basically the cost of one good app a month.” On the impact Amazon’s device and service will have on Fitbit and others in health and wellness space, he cited the growing market due to health concerns. Amazon brings “another option" with a known brand, “although using a version of Alexa might have worked better.” He sees the tech giant eventually bringing out a full line of devices, including smartwatches, but said Amazon wants to start “at mass market.” Gartner predicts $52 billion will be spent on wearables this year.
Zepp launched its E series wearables that monitor blood-oxygen saturation and sleep stages. The $249 watches support 11 sports modes and can operate underwater to 50 meters for 10 minutes, said the company Thursday. Battery life is up to one week. Zepp is taking preorders with availability set for Tuesday.