According to recent data from Statista, Fitbit and Apple were in the number two and three spots for wearables market share for 2015’s second quarter. Fitbit had 24.3% of the market, while Apple enjoyed 19.9%. While companies like Garmin, Xiaomi, Jawbone, and Samsung also had substantial market share, smaller providers made up the chart-topping ‘others’ category at 31.5%. Providers in the ‘others’ category include technology companies offering a wide range of wearable devices. Wearables are no longer just smartwatches or run-tracking arm bands. Today’s tech-enabled wearables now range from rings and ear pieces to microphones and bio-metric headphones. For a peek at the innovation happening within the wearable technology sector, check out the following five companies currently developing intriguing data-enabled devices:
Instamic
Successfully funded via Indiegogo, Instamic hopes to start shipping their wearable mini-microphone in the first quarter of 2016. Their awesome gadget can be attached to your clothing, affixed to a musical instrument, or even mounted on a loudspeaker. Instamic can be used to capture sounds while filming with your GoPro camera, while creating videos for your YouTube channel, or while proposing marriage to your significant other. Any sound you want to capture and share you can do so with your tiny Instamic microphone. Not only is this wonderful wearable waterproof it also pairs with your smartphone or tablet via Bluetooth technology. What an awesome addition to your mobile gadget collection, right?
Advanced Accessories
Advanced Accessories is creating NFC-enabled rings for men and women. Use your smart technology ring as a passcode to unlock your smartphone, as a business card to send data to an associate’s digital device, or to store Bitcoin data. Advanced Accessories is even exploring possibilities to integrate with NFC-enabled automobiles like BMW and Audi.
WeightUp
Currently in the pre-beta stage, WeightUp is developing wearable workout cuffs for weightlifters. Instead of tracking weight amounts and repetitions in a journal, the WeightUp cuffs will automatically transmit workout data to your smartphone. You can keep your digital device in your pocket and just focus on having a powerful weight workout, knowing your smartphone is receiving all your weight data.
Kuaiwear
Kuaiwear is now accepting pre-orders on their bio-metric headphones. These tiny tech marvels let you do everything from track your heart rate to answer phone calls. Track exercise data via your Kuaiwear ear buds, receive coaching in your ear while working out, or receive custom voice alerts from your smartphone.
Helix
Funded via Kickstarter, Ashley Chloe’s Helix wearable combines a stylish bracelet and tiny ear buds. The Bluetooth-enabled ear buds fit inside the bracelet and can be popped inside your ears whenever you like. Listen to your favorite music or podcast without ever having to worry about untangling the cord on your ear buds again.
As you can see from the above-listed options, there is plenty of innovation happening within the wearables sector. While companies like Apple and Fitbit enjoy a huge chunk of the market, startup companies are building intriguing products to satisfy consumer demand. As technology progresses and hardware becomes smaller, expect to see even more innovation within this sector. Do you think you will be adding any of these incredible products to your collection of tech gadgets?
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This category is only going to get more insane.
Weight up is pretty cool, although I have no idea how practical that could be. How would it know if you were doing curls or bench or squat? That being said it would be really nice not to keep having to go into my notes app on my phone. Streamlined weight room data could potentially make it really easy to justify going up in weight.
Some of the other offerings don’t seem as impressive to me. Looks like a lot of them are just single offerings that while impressive, aren’t exactly revolutionary in the way that apple watch is trying to be. I’m looking forward to what comes next though because I’m still interested in the earbud technology even though they are just essentially earphones+.