Smartwatches: A Gimmick or The Next iPad? [Readers Poll]

With the likes of Sony, Apple and Samsung all announcing they are working on smartwatches – it’s easy to get carried away in the hype for these new devices. Add to this the success of the Pebble, Agent and Vachen Smartwatch concepts on KickStarter, and you might already be kicking yourself for not getting involved as an early backer. But so far it’s all just speculation as to whether smartwatches will actually sell like hotcakes or be a flash in the pan – like a glorified Tamagotchi.

So we wanted to get your opinion on the matter. Will smartwatches reap the kind of success Apple enjoyed with the iPad or are they going to be a flop?

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Here’s a list of the main specs we’re expecting from the coming smartwatches:

• Calculator – old school like the original Casio computer watches.
• Phone connectivity – the main feature. Accessing messages, receiving/making calls, settings alarms and scheduling events without having to reach all the way to your pocket. To be fair – this could come in handy when riding a bike or doing something where you cannot use 2 hands.
• Media player remote – again controlling your smartphone media player from your wrist. Essentially a phone remote control.
• Internet notifications – nothing you cannot already do on your smartphone, but useful for checking your Facebook news feed on the sly maybe?
• Customisable watch faces – you’re probably not going to get bored of the way a smartwatch looks unless you suffer from a lack of imagination.
• App compatibility – this is a big one. Linking your smartwatch to your phone apps opens up a world of possibilities. You could use your smartwatch as a GPS device for running/cycling, a rangefinder for golf, to find directions using a map app, a camera remote, photo/video viewer, a thermometer, compass, weather forecasting tool, etc. We could go on for a while but you get the point – your options are only limited by the number of apps you use.
• Storage device – instead of lugging around that heavy USB drive, just connect your watch to your computer. On a serious note though – it’s probably a lot harder to lose your watch than other portable storage devices.

And here’s some highlights of the concepts we have seen so far:

The Pebble Smartwatch showcasing GPS capabilities

Sony’s newly announced SW2

The Vachen Smartwatch’s default customisable clock faces

Rumoured leaked pictures of Samsung’s soon to be released Smartwatch. Is it us or does it look a bit Windows 8?