This Week In Wearables – Adidas Buys Runtastic For $240 Million
This Week in Wearables is our weekly blog curating the best stories on wearables from around the web.
Adidas buys fitness tracking app maker Runtastic
via Reuters by Georgina Prodhan and Emma Thomasson
Adidas AG has bought fitness tracking app maker Runtastic, giving it access to a community of 70 million active users and helping it catch rivals in connected wearables. The German group said on Wednesday it had completed the acquisition from majority owner Axel Springer SE, along with the company’s founders and an “angel” investor, in a deal valuing the Austrian company at 220 million euros ($239 million).
9 Ways Wearables Could Change Health and Fitness
via The Next Web by Scott Gerber
With the advent of the smart watch, there’s potential for a lot more innovation in the realm of health and fitness. As more and more customers move to wearables, data collection becomes ever more robust.
Wearables Grow Beyond Fitness Tracking
via The Street by Stacy Liberatore
There was a time when the only devices comparable to fitness trackers or wearables were worn by James Bond and Dick Tracy. However, what was once a futuristic gadget is now part of our daily lives, with one in 10 U.S. adults sporting one around their wrist, According toI DTechEx, the total value of the wearables sector could increase to $70 billion by 2024.
Fitbit caters to corporations, and not just with discounted fitness trackers
via CIO by Fred O’Connor
Fitbit is known for selling fitness trackers to consumers, but the company also sees its fortunes in the enterprise market. “We think virtually every company will incorporate fitness trackers into their corporate wellness programs,” Fitbit CFO Bill Zerella said Tuesday.
Back to school: how will wearables fit in?
via USA Today by Jefferson Graham
Majd Nassif wears his new Apple Watch to class every day at the University of Southern California, and you might think that a professor might be concerned. After all, he could glance down at his wrist and perhaps pick up some clues to a test, or while away during the class checking his Facebook. No problems so far. Yet.
5 Smart Rules For Designing Wearables That Make Sense
via Wired by Liz Stinson
Today we’re experiencing the same awkward period, only this time it’s with computers we strap around our wrists. Designers are quickly learning that the rules they came up with for the phone don’t necessarily work on the shrunken screen of a smartwatch (just imagine if the design principles of our laptops had carried over to our smartphones). New rules apply.
Worldwide Wearables Market Forecast to Grow 173.3% in 2015, IDC Says
via Mobile Enterprise by Deena M. Amato-McCoy
The wearables market maintains its upward trajectory, especially as new vendors prepare to enter the marketplace. This, along with other factors, is driving an estimated compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 42.6% of wearables over the next five years. This information was shared in the “Worldwide Quarterly Wearable Device Tracker” report from International Data Corp. (IDC). The research group estimates that 155.7 million units will be shipped in 2019. More specifically, 72.1 million wearable devices are expected to ship this year, up a strong 173.3% from the 26.4 million units shipped in 2014, the report revealed.
Chill Debuts Watch-First App
Chill (iamchill.co)- is a textless and voiceless communication app for wearable devices which solves the pain of you reading and dialling textual messages from the tiny screens of wearables. Instead of typing a message Chill gives you a chance to communicate contextually by pinging your friends with “icons” in a certain context understandable only to both of you. Chill makes it easy to send and read from tiny screens.