Wearable “Wow” Overshadows Smartphones, Slows Sales
According to analysts at UBS AG, interest in upgrading smartphones has significantly declined as the “WOW” factor wears off in anticipation for flashy wearable devices.
Last year, about 68 million people upgraded their smartphones. Though the number is still impressive, it’s down by 9 percent compared to the year before.
“They haven’t thrown anything out that’s just like, ‘Wow,’ ” said Conner Green, a consumer who won’t be upgrading his Samsung Galaxy S2 anytime soon. “There is a cycle every four or five years. It will be a few years before a breakthrough and people buy phones like when Apple first introduced the iPhone,” he said.
Incentivizing the upgrade
Smartphones are getting more and more expensive with each release, and this may be a huge factor in the declining interest of upgrading gadgets. This is the reason why carriers are implementing new upgrade plans. T-Mobile has rolled out Jump! which makes it easier for consumers to upgrade devices every six months. AT&T and Verizon aren’t far behind and will be launching their own upgrading schemes, Next and VZ Edge in the coming weeks.
Joining Kristin Feledy in this morning’s NewsDesk is SiliconANGLE Contributing Editor John Casaretto with his Breaking Analysis on the declining interest in upgrading smartphones and if wearable techs pick up the momentum.
Casaretto explains that consumers who are using average smartphones do not see the need to upgrade to new, faster, and more powerful smartphones since these average smartphones already do the things they want and need. Now, consumers are looking into something different or edgier, such as wearable devices like Google Glass and smartwatches.
“In terms of wearable devices, it’s something that would be a new product, a change,” Casaretto starts. “We’ve got the Google Glass, the watch coming out, all these different things that appear to be the next phase in how they’re trying to get these devices out there and try to turn some more profiting, get people engaged with more connectivity, better smart devices that can do more for people, and get them, of course, to subscribe to data and everything else. There’s a lot of interest in that and I think that we’re gonna see a lot of uptake. I’m feeling very positive about the wearable devices movement,” Casaretto stated.
For more of Casaretto’s Breaking Analysis, check out the NewsDesk video below:
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