DocAndersen
A friend of mine sent me a post I did five years ago. It was things my smartwatch did, that well weren’t very smart overall. I started doing that right as smartwatches hit the market. The Pebble was launched right as the Apple Watch and Samsung Gear were announced. The two large companies had been developing smartwatches for a while, but the more agile small company Pebble jumped into the market first. The biggest smartwatch, though, was the Pebble. Pebble was the early innovation lead, but that passed quickly to Samsung and Apple. In the context of a watch, the concept of smart versus well dumb watches is the ability actually to run applications.
Pebble quickly faded. They couldn’t keep up with the more prominent tech companies, and eventually, Pebble became part of the company Fitbit. Fitbit struggled as well, they were the innovator in the workout dongle market, and while they were the market leader, it was a smaller market than watches. The original smartwatch was the Microsoft Spot Watch. It used a low-frequency FM broadcast, and it could do live weather, automatic time changes as you cross time zones, and integration with a few other services. The Pebble was the next iteration of what had been the Microsoft Spot watch service, roughly ten years later. With the release of Pebble, we suddenly saw watches again.
Until the smartwatch watch wearing had declined globally, when I was a young person, everyone wore watches. Many people move only to tell time via their cell phones. Observations had begun to decline Until the clock suddenly became a cell phone information screen. I don’t think watches will ever be as popular tomorrow as they were in the 1960s and 1970s, But more people are wearing watches overall (the low point was around 2004 time frame). I have worn a watch for many years personally. I got one when I was 11 years old and had been wearing a watch ever since then. The watch has become the second cell phone screen, and during a meeting, it is a lot more socially acceptable to look at your watch than to pick up your cell pheon to tell the “time” (or in all honestly to see who emailed you, who IM “ed” you and so on. All of that visible on your watch now!)
This work is Copyright DocAndersen. Any resemblance to people real or fictional in this piece is accidental (unless explicitly mentioned by name.)
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Question of
have you ever heard of Fitbit?
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Yes
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No
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Question of
Have you ever heard of Pebble (other than throwing one into a pond)?
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Yes
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My son and daughter in law have one. I dont see them using them much though. My youngest son prefers a dumb watch. I have a clock, it is digital that I use mostly. The computer as well. The sun most of the time. I like sun dials. 😉
sundials are cool – i use my watch all the time, I actually got my wife to wear a smart watch!
Yes, they really are. I would like to build one on my desert property. I think it would be really cool out there. I really like the concept of the watch. I bet it would come in so handy hiking. Good job on getting her to wear one. They need to make pretty ones.
apple makes a smaller one that my wife loves!
Q: HAVE YOU EVER HEARD OF FITBIT?
Yes (2 votes) – 67%
No (1 votes) – 33%
Pertaining to the history of smartwatch, it is new to me. They’re now advanced. I agree the wearing of watches is fading at a great length. I have come to learn that people holding top positions in a company wear watches more than those in lower positions.
i find it amazing how watches have evolved. I still have the watch my grandfather gave me for graduation and it still works.
but I don’t wear it anymore.
I have noted even the wrist watch have become advanced. With the younger generation, the watches will be preserved in museums for a future generation to look back in time.
it has become the second screen for the phone – but less rude than checking time on your cell phone!
Yah, especially in a meeting. It’s being unprofessional.
it is, half my team does it, so i solved that problem for them!
You did a worthy thing😀
it wasn’t a nice solution, it was actually according to my team, a little harsh.
I haven’t worn a watch in a long time. My watch is on my cell phone.
a lot of people do that now. i don’t think that is bad. Unless you are in my meeting constantly looking at your phone (I have to check the time)!
I agree. I haven’t had a watch since I retired.
i had almost reached the point where I was not going to wear watches, when the Pebble appeared. now I am hooked again!
I use my phone for a phone and I use my watch to tell time.
my watch can tell me the time out loud!
I am afraid that might irritate me to no end.
i suspect it would, plus it does it in the mickey mouse voice!
I know many that use Fitbit and the smartwatch mainly for tracking their steps. I do this with my phone.
i use both (I get frustrated with both for accuracy)!
I have heard many get frustrated with both as well.
i know that serious runners don’t use the Apple or Android trackers.
I wonder why, are they not accurate?