Wearables such as smartwatches and Google Glass are still two years away from being ‘must-have’ consumer buys, a leading retailer has suggested.
Despite being one of the biggest growth areas on the tech scene over the past 12 months, high street seller John Lewis has claimed it does not expect wearables to feature too heavily on many consumers’ Christmas wish lists until 2016.
“In the long term wearables are undoubtedly going to be massive,” Johnathan Marsh, Head Buyer of Electrics and Home Technology at John Lewis said speaking with TrustedReviews.
“Is it going to be the one breakthrough thing this Christmas that everyone has to have? I don’t think so.”
He added: “I don’t think we are at that stage yet. I think
Despite suggesting that a lack of practical user cases are keeping wearables from hitting the mainstream just yet, Marsh was keen to stress that that doesn’t mean wearables aren’t going to be a big deal this festive period.
On the contrary, the retailer has said wearables sales will be up “thousands of per cent” in 2014 over the previous 12 months.
“It is probably going to be 10 times bigger than it was last year – so thousands of per cent up,” Marsh said of the wearables space. “It will be much more popular but it is still coming off a very small base.”
He added: “People are more inquisitive and want to know how they can lead better lifestyles. That information and data set that you can get from wearable technologies is definitely something we are seeing consumers wanting more of down the line.”
With the recent introduction of Google’s Android Wear OS and the subsequent LG G Watch and Samsung Gear Live, many were expecting the wearables space to kick on to the next level.
Sadly, based on our experience with the new platform here in TrustedReviews Towers, the market is still suffering from many of the same practicality and usefulness issues as 12 months ago. Maybe in two years’ time we will be closer to the finished article.
Read More: Samsung Gear 2 review
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
