Wearable Gadgets Seek Permanent Place In Users' Lives

BARCELONA, , (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 28th Feb, 2017 ) - Consumers are snapping up fitness trackers, smartwatches and other connected wearable gadgets -- but huge numbers wind up in drawers unused after just a few months once the novelty wears off.

"Abandonment has been a big problem with wearable products," said Mike Pedler, the leader of PwC's product innovation and development practice. "It is something that everyone involved in designing and producing wearables is still wrestling to address." With worldwide sales of smartphones now barely growing, many tech firms have turned their focus to wearable gadgets in the hope that they will be the next big source of growth.

Huawei, the world's third-largest phone maker, unveiled a new smartwatch at the mobile World Congress, the phone industry's largest annual trade fair, with a more sporty look than the first device it launched two years ago.

Dozens of other wearable gadgets, ranging from bracelets that measure your heart rate to GPS-connected footwear, were on show at the event which wraps up on Thursday. CCS Insight predicts 411 million wearables devices -- including virtual reality headsets and wearable cameras -- will be sold around the world in 2020, up from 123 million in 2016.

But about a third of owners of smart wearables abandon these devices after six months, according consulting firm Endeavour Partners. "For now most devices would not pass the 'turnaround test,' which is characteristic of an item you would turn around and retrieve if you realized you'd forgotten it on your way to work.

Like your wallet. Or keys. Or smartphone," PwC said in a report on wearables last year.