Garmin jumps into the screenless band market
Garmin has launched a screenless band tracker, joining the likes of Whoop, Hume and Google. The new tracker – the Cirqa Smart Band – offers a 10 day battery and is priced at $200. That’s significantly more than Google, but more in line with the Hume Band. Whoop gives its band away for “free” because you pay for the annual membership… which starts at $200. Garmin has differentiated slightly with the device build by adding a single button on the side that can be used to switch between your preferred activities.
The Circana Take:
- The smart band market is an interesting – and expending – one. It’s perfect for consumers who want to wear a normal watch and the band becomes more of a fashion accessory of sorts. We expect the market for different bands to be far more successful than it is for smart watched.
- While it can be argued that smart bands are a competitor to the smartwatch I am unconvinced (I wear both). Rather, the band is a threat to activity trackers, but more so to smart rings.
- The smart band market is also a little complex in terms of who the customer is. Whoop, for example, is aimed at more serious athletes while the Hume Band is more focused on longevity and overall health (as is Google to an extent). As such, expect Garmin’s new band to be more focused on the Whoop segment than the others.
Samsung upgrades its smartwatches
Samsung’s Unpacked event was last week and, in addition to the phone announcements, the company announced its latest smartwatches. The Galaxy Watch 9 has a significantly larger battery (20% more) than its predecessor (Watch 8) while the Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 gets a brighter display and a 35% larger battery all crammed into a casing that is 12% thinner than the original Ultra. Notably, both watches now come with watch straps than are smaller, lighter and softer so they will be more comfortable to wear.
Hardware aside, Samsung launched a new AI-powered Health Assistant that monitors health points such as heart rate and blood oxygen while you sleep (assuming you choose to sleep with the watch on of course). There is also a Sleep Apnea feature and a Heart Health Score.
The Circana Take:
- As hardware capabilities begin to max out, the real battle is the AI-infused software that will make sense of all the data and tell you useful – and actionable – information. To that extent, Samsung should consider launching a bathroom scale to fir in with its wearables ecosystem (note, Samsung currently partners with various companies to source that data for its app).