How relevant are Smartwatches?

It is 2015, and smartwatches are the baby of technology. Smartwatches are the most personal devices ever made, for sure. Myself, I hopped on the smartwatch bandwagon, buying the original Pebble in early 2014. I loved it, and still use it today. But something people ask a lot and I see a lot is “Are smartwatches really worth it” or “Why can’t you pull out your phone to look at something?” Those questions I will answer in this article.

Smartwatches, something that every old person thinks Apple invented. The issue today is the big name brands overshadow the small, original names. The original goal of the Pebble was to give you notifications on your wrist, and have some fitness notifications. Now, most smartwatches are geared out and crazy. When someone ask what smartwatch to buy, I always recommend a Pebble, for the simple fact that it is easy to use, set-up, and it does what it is made to do. With platform compatibility not an issue, Pebble is a smartwatch everyone can use.

Don’t get me wrong, many smartwatches are good at what they do, but I LOVE the Pebble, and all the new products they have. When i saw the Apple Watch, I didn’t know it told time. That holds true with Android Wear smartwatches. I look for 4 things in a smartwatch; How well it displays notifications, must be a good fitness tracker, must tell time, and MUST BE AFFORDABLE. That is a HUGE issues I have, I am not paying more than $300 for a Smartwatch. Sorry, ain’t doing it. Anyone that bought a $10,000+ Apple Watch is crazy, seriously, why.

In a simple statement, Smartwatches pretty much do the same thing, some are just more affordable. Oh, and I DO NOT need games on a smartwatch. Like why?

Are smartwatches worth it? Yes. and No. It depends on the way you look at it. Most people who buy smartwatches are people who need to say that 5 seconds it takes to pull out your phone, those who want to have notifications and fitness tracker in one device. The people that disagree with us “Crazy Ones” that will spend $200 on a watch that gives notifications are the ones who spend $20,000 on a Rolex. I like Rolexes, but I would never buy one. Being the kind of guy I am, I need technology. So I do think Smartwatches are worth it. For $200 or so, you are getting something that you can wear for 3-4 years, and get your money’s worth.

Why can’t us smartwatch users pull out our phones and look at the notification? Well I have one sentence for you: We don’t want to.

Conclusion:
I am not saying go out and buy a smartwatch. I just thing they are cool. Are they the future? Maybe. Someone needs to compete with the Apple Watch. The smartwatch industry is going to flop without any competition. If you have an iOS device, you have an Apple Watch, if you have an android device, you have an android wear device. If you are cool, you have a Pebble. This needs to change. Someone (could be Pebble) needs to shake things up. Something needs to happen to make people want a smartwatch. people won’t want one if their phones does everything it needs. This will change one day, but until then I will keep using my Pebble Original, and wait for the Pebble TimeRound to come out, which I can’t wait for.

Do you have a smartwatch? What one? Do you like it? Let me know!