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The last couple of weeks have confirmed to me that there is a lack of compelling innovation in the consumer electronics space… at least right now. Phone and smartwatch launches have become small iterative enhancements rather than substantial innovations, while IFA, the large European consumer electronics show, was a muted affair with little to set the world on fire.
Since its launch five years ago, Apple has worked to provide users with strong additional value in each iteration of its market-leading Apple Watch. While the Apple Watch Series 5 is mostly a carryover from the Series 4 in terms of form factor and features, Apple’s continued focus on health and wellness usability and strong sales momentum will keep the device as the leading new smartwatch on the market.
For those of us living in the northern hemisphere, the beginning of September marks the end of the summer with colder weather ahead. But if you are one of the 900 million iPhone owners, and especially if it’s time to replace your current device, September also marks the grand unveiling of Apple’s latest and greatest in the iPhone series and more.
IFA is often considered to be the CES tradeshow of Europe, where global consumer electronics vendors would showcase the commercialized products they previously previewed at CES. Held in Berlin every year in early September, the show would get little attention from the mobile world but that has been changing lately as smartphone vendors shift their focus from overly mature markets like the U.S. to EMEA markets.
The Consumers and Wearables report is your go to for understanding the consumer activity tracker and smart watch market. The report includes insights across shopping, ownership and usage behaviors including purchase motivators, brand trends, frequency of usage and engagement, drivers of churn, future interest, and more. Adoption and usage patterns are segmented by demographics, exercise and dietary habits, and other key profiles.
Key findings this wave include:
The smart home market has continued its path towards mass-market appeal and penetration over the past year. In fact, 24 percent of Internet connected households now report owning one or more smart home products. However, the biggest sign that the smart home market now has a high-level of mainstream acceptance is the penetration growth among the middle aged 35-54 segment. In fact, that age group has seen overall smart home penetration climb to 26 percent, a significant 10 percentage point increase from October, 2017. Smart speaker ownership has also continued to be a significant driver for smart home product adoption, as tighter integration with voice AI solutions such as Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant have improved ease of use and compatibility between products. In fact, nearly 60 percent of smart speaker owners also own other smart home products.
The TV-Connected Device Forecast projects household penetration rates and the installed base for connected TVs, streaming media players, video game consoles, and Blu-ray Disc Players through 2022.
Key findings this wave include:
The T-Mobile/Sprint merger is (almost) complete, having passed the major hurdle of gaining approval from the Department of Justice (DoJ) on Friday. As part of the deal, Dish Networks has emerged as the new “number four” carrier, and is spending $5 billion to purchase Sprint’s prepaid assets, notably Boost and Virgin, as well as a swathe of 800 MHz spectrum from Sprint. It is, without a shadow of a doubt, a major victory for T-Mobile and Sprint.
In an era of smartphones and tablets, schools are beginning to change their curriculum, taking the focus off skills such as cursive writing. As voice-based interfaces become more pervasive, what additional changes will the future bring?
I’m starting to get concerned that the marketing hype surrounding 5G will struggle to meet the reality of the situation. Beyond any technical reservations (we’ll get to those) there seems to be a growing sentiment that 5G will cause fundamental upheavals in society and business – the like of which have never been seen before. Consider me a skeptic.