Smart Watches: A Necessary Convenience or Optional Gadget?
Reasons To Buy Smart Watches.
Nowadays, everyone has a smartphone. It has almost become impossible to NOT have WhatsApp when someone asks you how he should send you the picture of a cool restaurant he ate his dinner last night.
It seems like an “offence” when someone says “Oh! I don’t use WhatsApp” and you must look at the expression on the other person’s face! Yes, the Internet has upgraded lives to the extent that it has become inevitable to use smartphones. The manufacturers still have not stopped making our lives easier though.
They keep endeavouring to add something new that we might think was so important before it arrived in the market. Is it because their research and development (R&D) departments are so top-notch that they keep studying our lifestyles and habits and then come to a product idea? For example, how they could have conceived that we need a smartwatch? Or do we ACTUALLY need it?
In this post today, we would talk about whether smart watches are necessary. We would look into how much people are dependent on this gadget in their daily lives and what benefits they gain from it.
Beginning of the Smartwatch
Technically, the very first smartwatch was produced by Timex Datalink in 1994. It had the ability to download computer data wirelessly along with telling time. The co-developer was Microsoft who came ahead with its ingenious technology inside.
The collaboration of Microsoft and Datalink was considered the hallmark of scientific creativity that is otherwise seen in space travel missions. People were not aware that any such possibility was POSSIBLE until this water-resistant and easily programmable watch came to the market.
Loading applications into the watch that you could use at your fingertips was an unfathomable act before that. It was magical to those who did not believe that a watch is capable of performing inconceivable functions.
HOWEVER, smartwatches became more popular in the 2010s when Apple revamped the concept of a smartwatch. Why did it become popular so long after Timex Datalink? Because fitness became a THING in that era. People were becoming more health conscious and wanted to track their fitness routine alongside other competing brands’ smartwatches, such as Fitbit and Nike.
Are Smartwatches Useful?
Despite their growing fame, are smartwatches really useful? It seems they are only useful to a certain portion of the population in every country who are fitness freaks. The early smartwatches were nothing more than tracking heart rates and footsteps.
No further use was observed of the smartwatches and a majority of the general population never wanted to pay such a hefty price for something that is not much of their use. But when the revamp of the concept of smartwatches was witnessed due to the growth of smartwatches more than just fitness trackers.
It somehow became a necessity. Still, people who crave smartwatches are very few. You would be surprised to know that in modern times like today, only three in ten Americans, which is only 21% of the total population, use smartwatches for fitness tracking. These are those households that earn more than $75,000.
Though smartwatches have developed as more useful gadgets with calls receiving and seeing notifications, the usability factor has not grown much. Why do we say so? Because a school teacher or a taxi driver might not be much interested in buying an expensive gadget whose perceived usefulness is not high.
Instead, smartphones are much more beneficial as everything is present in the phone, from using GPS to finding a location to searching for nearby restaurants on Google and extensive access to millions of apps in the Play Store.
Let us look into its benefits first:
- First and foremost is the ease with which we can check your notifications and answer calls, no matter where you are. If you have your phone placed in another room and you are on your rooftop, you don’t have to rush to pick up the phone to attend the call. With some good smartwatches, you can do it with one click on the watch.
- Saving the phone’s battery is another benefit of using a smartwatch. You do not have to use your phone all day and consume its battery for the entire day. You can now do half of the chores from your smartwatch. The combination of most of the functions of the phones on your smartwatch is the reason that a significant part of your phone battery would be saved.
- Next comes the most talked about feature that certifies that smartwatches ARE necessary, which is fitness tracking. Health awareness is growing and this is the market that most of the product manufacturers are trying to capture in every possible way. Monitoring your blood pressure, heart rate, oxygen levels, etc. keeps you away from chronic diseases. An active lifestyle is encouraged with the use of smartwatches which is one of the excellent reasons to buy smart watches.
- Why wouldn’t you want to hear some good music while you are on the treadmill? Today’s smartwatches have high-resolution displays to keep you entertained for hours.
- Are you one of those people who need a travel buddy? Certainly, a smartwatch is YOUR kind of thing then. Apple smartwatch vibrates to let you know whether you should turn left or right on the next turn.
- The current generation, the Millennials, are making use of technology in an entirely different manner. They are more into following trends and like to grab the first new product that is innovative. Primarily because it gives them a sense of approval and a more ‘up-to-date’ kind of image. They find it nice to stay upgraded even among friends and that is why buying smartwatches, despite not much of the essential use, is fashionable, offering you some sort of social hierarchy.
Why Smartwatches Are Useless?
By telling you all these benefits we certainly don’t want you to be convinced why you should buy a smartwatch. It only depends on the user preferences and the extreme need to spend some extra bucks for a smartwatch.
As mentioned earlier, the majority of the population thinks that smartwatches are useless as most of the functions are fulfilled by smartphones. They find smartwatches an extra investment as they are expensive. They could cost more than $500, which does not make it an attractive purchase.
Also, it would look funny to hold a conversation through your smartwatch in public when you would be holding your wrist right next to your ear.
Everyone else in the public would hear what you are saying over the phone because sometimes the small size of the watch does not make it practical to hear the other person clearly. The experience of having a phone call conversation is far from practical.
Conclusion
Whether or not smartwatches are necessary is subjective and depends on individual needs and preferences. Smartwatches have many features that can be useful for people who are looking for a more convenient way to stay connected and organized.
They can display notifications from your phone, track your fitness goals, provide directions, and even make phone calls or send texts. For some people, these features can be very helpful in managing their daily activities and staying on top of their schedules. For others, they may not find them necessary or useful.
Ultimately, “Are smart watches necessary” depends on your lifestyle and priorities. If you find yourself frequently checking your phone for updates or relying on your phone’s GPS, a smartwatch may be a convenient alternative. However, if you don’t need these features, a traditional watch may be sufficient for your needs.
