“Longer-lasting batteries are crucial for a new crop of wearable computers whose rise may upend Apple and Google’s dominance of mobile devices, two of the field’s pioneers say,” Alexei Oreskovic and Gerry Shih report for Reuters. “Wearable devices – from bracelets that monitor physical activity and sleeping patterns to clothing with built-in sensors and Web-ready glasses – may mark the next big technology shift, just as smartphones evolved from personal computers. That transition has put the unglamorous battery in a starring role.”
Oreskovic and Shih report, “Soulaiman Itani, chief executive of Atheer Labs, …likened wearable computing’s current stage of evolution to smartphones during the mid-2000s. ‘It’s at the Palm stage, and you need an iPhone to come out,’ Itani said, referring to Palm Pilots that predated the 2007 iPhone that won strong reviews but was rendered defunct after Apple’s seminal device was launched.”
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“Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook has called wearable computers an area ‘ripe for exploration.’ But during his comments at the AllThings Digital conference last month, he stopped short of confirming reports the company was developing a smartwatch,” Oreskovic and Shih report. “Some think the market for wearable computers won’t take off until Apple enters the fray, providing the kind of clever design and marketing blitz that helped transform smartphones into a must-have consumer item. ‘If Apple enters the market that would be a rapid leap forward,’ said Forrester analyst Sarah Rotman Epps. ‘Apple is a market maker. Any Apple device can sell tens of millions of units.'”
Read more in the full article here.
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Yes , without Apple , others will be like nothing .
Thank you Captain Obvious.
Apple won’t release any small or wearable computer device until it has battery technology which will provide sufficient usage. Until battery tech takes the next big step forward, any wearable device is going to be significantly limited.
You’re welcome!
I’ve been looking for a way to invest in battery technology and graphene may be the breakthrough point.
Batteries were crucial to everything that’s come to build and define Apple over the past decade. What’s new?
I think technology beyond batteries themselves will be needed to give such a device a decent usage window between charges.
Where is the heft in any wearable computing device going to be? In the battery. So where do you put it? Flexible batteries? And how do you charge it? Passive charging?
Current battery technology remains relatively primitive. But there is progress.
Indeed. Batteries.