CES 2017: What wearables can we expect at this year’s big event?
CES 2017: What wearables can we expect at this year’s big event?
The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2017 is on the horizon and ahead of the ReadWrite team heading to Vegas, we are getting ready for another week of announcements and insights into the future of wearables.
CES has always been a great event to launch new products, as seen last year with the Under Armour Healthbox, Bragi Dash, HTC Vive Pre, Misfit Ray, and Fitbit Blaze. 2017 should be no different, so expect a slew of wearable suppliers to attend the event.
See Also: In a world worn out on wearables, China still likes them
The Wearables Marketplace will be the place to find most wearables announced at CES, with dozens of exhibitors planning to attend the event.
Fitness continues to be the big selling point for wrist wearable suppliers, despite signals that consumers want more from their devices. Fitbit might be able to answer that call this year; it is expected to integrate a payments system into its next fitness tracker.
Smart clothing will be more prominent this year
Smart clothing has become a more accessible market for consumers in 2016, but still lacks the mainstream presence wrist wearables have taken for granted. Hopefully, some of the smart clothing firms coming to CES 2017 will be able to show the average customer why smart clothes are better than normal fabric.
Virtual reality made its commercial debut in 2016, with the launch of the Oculus Rift, HTC Vive VR, and PlayStation VR. Now, it is time for a hardware update, either upgrading the performance or reducing the size of VR headwear. We might also see a few augmented reality projects at CES 2017, though we don’t expect Magic Leap or any other secretive developer to reveal all at the event.
Smartwatches are having a dismal time in the West, consumers don’t appear too interested in the expensive and rather limited devices. Samsung’s Gear S2 was a nice redesign and won over some critics, but the South Korean firm will have to do more to change the mainstream opinion that the watch is more than an expensive notification reminder.
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