Amazon opens store dedicated to wearable tech

As a recent Women’s Wear Daily article pointed out, the recent decision by Nike to lay off most of the hardware team working on its FuelBand fitness device, as well as slow sales of Samsung’s Galaxy Gear, has led some to question the market for wearable technology, at least in the short term. It appears as though Amazon.com doesn’t share that feeling as the company announced yesterday the opening of its Wearable Technology store (www.Amazon.com/wearabletechnology).
The new online store will feature a wide variety of wearable tech devices — activity trackers, smart watches, wearable cameras, etc. — from manufacturers including Basis, Bionym, GoPro, Jawbone, Misfit, Narrative and Samsung. (Google Glass will not be an offering.)
Amazon’s new store features the "Learning Center," which includes buying guides and product videos, as well as the "Editor’s Corner" for wearable tech news and device reviews.
"Wearable technology is an exciting category with rapid innovation and our customers are increasingly coming to Amazon to shop and learn about these devices," said John Nemeth, director of wireless and mobile electronics at Amazon. "We’re thrilled to bring our customers a store with the largest selection and great prices that helps eliminate the guesswork when deciding which wearable devices best fit their needs — whether that is tracking activity, staying connected through smart watches or capturing their next adventure with wearable cameras."
- Amazon.com Puts Wearable Technology at Your Fingertips with Launch of New Store – Amazon.com, Inc.
- Wearable Tech Seeks Its Place – WWD (sub. required)
- Nike, FuelBand Bailing Out of the Wearables Business – PC Mag
- Review: We wear Samsung’s Gear 2 and Gear Fit so you don’t have to – Ars Technica
Are there particular types of devices that you expect to succeed or fail in the early years of wearable technology? Will the opening of Amazon’s new store help accelerate adoption of wearable tech?
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12 Comments on "Amazon opens store dedicated to wearable tech"
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I think it’s still really early in the wearable tech space. The fitness devices are pretty primitive really…mostly glorified pedometers. I see the future going in 2 distinct directions:
For the first, we have to look to the medical folks. For the second, I’ve got my eye on Apple.
The old adage of WII FM is still true … What’s In It For Me?
The challenge with wearable technology is understanding the value. When you can get everything on your smartphone, why wear a clunky wrist device that only displays a few things?
Consumers literally need to “see” the benefits of owning a wearable device. And, the retailer stores have been woefully inadequate in demonstrating that value.
It will be a very, very interesting experiment to see if Amazon’s approach and “learning center” can deliver the WII FM that has been missed by both retail stores and the brands themselves. This is a great Omni-channel case study unfolding before our eyes.
This is a long-term bet on the part of Amazon. If they set up a go-to website for wearable tech, then when it hits big, Amazon stands to gain share over Best Buy, et al.
While wearables aren’t quite ready for prime-time (at least from a consumer point of view, B2B may be another matter), they will inevitably evolve into something really interesting. Having been a Google Glass Explorer, I can say that the capabilities of a visual-field wearable are impressive. Sure, it’s clunky now. But it won’t be clunky forever.
It’s not clear (to me, at any rate) where the market is going for wearable devices; at least I haven’t heard/seen that the devices were jumping off the shelves, so I think Amazon’s anticipatory move into this market may be too early and impulsive.
You’d think there’d be a ton of research, i.e., business scenario management, to support this bold move, so is there such data to support this?
This is another great discussion with many relevant issues at play directly tied to Amazon’s future. The first is slow sales. Amazon is having to address the market and its tricks and traps, including an economy that is unfriendly to any and all business worldwide.
Perhaps the most fun and least obvious question in the article is if Amazon can build a brick & mortar store that works. This is important because if they don’t, the feedback on new and improved product will inherently be contaminated towards a failure of some sort. The good news is the whole world will be watching and many will dip a toe into this new market for short and long term commitment.
There is nothing more amazing and as fun to watch as the evolution of Information Technology where one day you are the new smartphone and the next day you’re sleeping with the beepers.
There’s a demographic that loves wearable tech and wants to purchase more. It makes sense to create a nexus where the curious and affluent can get inspiration, try new products, and add them to their portfolio.
I’m looking for big adoption of the Google Glass contact lens; that really could have legs.
Wearable technology will continue to grow and evolve, but is here to stay. I use a Pebble watch and find it to be a convenient device to get get quick status updates when I don’t want to pull out the phone. I also use a Fitbit on the other arm to track activity. While these may be simple uses today, as these devices evolve and become more capable and less clunky (and are all integrated — remember carrying a Palm Pilot and a flip phone?), the adoption will continue to grow.
I don’t think Amazon opening a storefront will accelerate adoption, but why not take advantage of a way to consolidate and showcase what is available?
The initial wearable market has been fitness with a large number of entries in that space. Nike’s exit in that space with the layoffs of the Fuel Band development team shows the space is in a lot of flux. I am not sold on Google Glass as a broad adoption in its current form; just too intrusive except for business/industrial applications.
Another thing I am seeing in San Francisco is the wearable/fashion combo which incorporates technology into fashion aesthetics like the TshirtOS or tech-enabled clothing. Amazon’s new store will help legitimize the space and given it is virtual, not a huge investment on their part.
I am a fan and probably a bit of an early adopter in wearable tech. I think there is a ton of potential around fitness tracking and health monitoring. There is a load of VC funding going into this area, and I think that Amazon’s new store is both a recognition of the potential, and will help it somewhat along the path in becoming increasingly mainstream.
I’m not sure if there has yet to be developed a “must have” piece of wearable technology except by those early adopters who must have everything “technew.”
To that point, Jing Daily, a Beijing based luxury trend newsletter just published their view of China’s consumer trends for 2014. Number One on the list stated, “They (Chinese consumers) are becoming more obsessed with technology. The ‘geek movement’ has become mainstream in China, prompting a fascination with high-tech
devices such as wearable tech. A survey finds that 31 percent of consumers say they are high-tech trendsetters, a number that’s up 35 percent since 2010.” Western tech companies need to address this market.