Welcome to The Wearable Weekly, your trusted guide to all things wearable tech. If you only have time to read one thing about wearables this week, this is it. Don’t forget to subscribe to The Wearable Weekly using the form below to make sure it hits your email inbox every week!
Industry Highlights
The geeky side of VR was highlighted in Time magazine’s latest “controversial” cover. Time featured a pic of Oculus founder Palmer Luckey awkwardly wearing a VR headset photoshopped against a fake beach scene as part of its feature on VR. Reactions from the cover have been explosive with some getting serious, saying it is a threat to the success of VR, while many used this opportunity to take Luckey’s picture and make it into the latest internet meme.
A remote for the smart home may be a killer app for smartwatches. Smart lock August released an Apple Watch app that will let users get wrist notifications about the activity of their connected door and more. August joins other connected home apps like those from Philips Hue and Alarm.com, suggesting that the use of a smartwatch to control the connected home may be a valid reason to use such a device.
Fitness wearable space continues to see great traction with FitBit and Adidas making big news this week. Adidas acquired Runtastic, a European maker of fitness apps and wearable activity trackers, in a deal that valued Runtastic at 220 million. FitBit also reported some amazing numbers for its second quarter of the year, stating it had more than tripled its revenue to $400m.
Statistics & Forecasts
The wearable tech market will rise from $24.2 billion this year to $74 billion in 2025, tripling in ten years, according to a research forecast by IDTechEx (Wareable)
Sales of virtual-reality devices are expected to reach 14 million units in 2016, according to a new report from TrendForce (MarketWatch)
Fitbit saw its revenue beat expectations and more than triple to $400m in the second quarter of the year (BBC)
Device Announcements
Luxury watch maker, Nico Gerard, debuted traditional timepieces that incorporate Apple Watch (The Verge)
Pebble Time Steel now available for pre-order (MobileSyrup)
Initial Samsung “Orbis” smartwatch specifications revealed (SamMobile)
SMI demonstrated the First Eye Tracking Upgrade for Epson Moverio augmented reality glasses (PR Newswire)
Airbus has developed “connected glasses” for technicians to wear on the A330 final assembly lines (Assembly Magazine)
YONO inner-ear device launched to help women track their ovulation cycles (SYS-CON)
Funding, Crowdfunding, and M&A
Adidas acquired Runtastic (New York Times)
Major Milestones
Stanford Computational Imaging Group have developed a VR headset that reduces eye strain and nausea (Stanford Report)
The Saints are the latest NFL team to announce the use of VR in training (EPSN)
Google released Google Maps for Android Wear smartwatches (Android Headlines)
August smart lock updated to support Apple Watch (SlashGear)
New app for Recon Jet lets users control GoPro (Geeky Gadgets)
Microsoft launched an Apple Watch app for Outlook (CNET)
Rumours
Apple Watch supplier report may suggest that Apple’s first wearable hasn’t hit the mark on expected numbers (Apple Insider)
New Google Glass for Business will reportedly include a feature to attach to existing eyewear (PC World)
Samsung not expected to make announcement on new smartwatch at Unpacked event this month (SamMobile)
Comments from Microsoft CEO suggest that HoloLens release will happen for developers next year with consumer release further out (SlashGear)
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