Led by names like Google, Apple and Samsung, the wearables category of the connected economy has become a study in contradictions. New, high-profile introductions have accelerated due to recent events like the Consumer Electronics Show and Mobile World Congress (MWC). On the other hand, niche players have also become more aggressive providing new use cases for the category. And while some companies are working to create a “super wearable” that unites disparate fitness data sources, others are sticking with the proprietary approach. These dynamics have put wearable innovations back on the agend ..read more

Gen Z are a difficult group to predict. They love picking up their restaurant meals, both inside and curbside. They are most open to new ways to pay, but lag behind other age cohorts in everyday digital activities such as ordering those meals online. They are digital natives but are leading the “dumb phone” trend. Given this select uptake of digital innovations, it may be notable that it is Gen Z who far outpaces other age demographics when it comes to using healthcare-related wearables. This is most recently indicated in proprietary data prepared for PYMNTS’ March “ConnectedEconomy Monthly Re ..read more

Continuing its push for artificial intelligence (AI) in healthcare use cases from search to symptom tracking and treatment, Google announced progress along these lines at its annual Check Up event on Tuesday (March 14). Google Chief Health Officer Karen DeSalvo told attendees that “The future of health is consumer driven. People will expect a mobile-first experience with more personalized insights, services, and care. That means enterprises including Google will need to evolve to meet consumers where they are.” DeSalvo and others laid out progress the company is making in the digital transform ..read more

Wellness and wearables go together like watches and wrists, like rings and fingers, but they’re far more than digital status symbols. Wellness is bringing out the true utility of these trendy devices as innovation in the wearables space shows, borne out by new research. Analyzing the adoption of digital fashions for tracking health in the past year, PYMNTS surveyed nearly 2,670 consumers on their use of connected devices for wellness, and to see which brands and form factors are getting consumers deeper into self-directed health monitoring. In “Connected Wellness: Tracking The Rise Of Health-T ..read more

Google Wallet has been extended to 12 more countries — bringing the total to 57 — and can now be added to any Fitbit Sense 2 or Versa 4. These are among the new features announced Tuesday (Nov. 15) by Google Wallet Vice President and General Manager Jenny Cheng in a product update. “When we launched Google Wallet earlier this year, we wanted to give as many people as possible access to a secure digital wallet,” Cheng said in the post. The countries in which Google Wallet was launched Tuesday are Armenia, Cyprus, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malysia, Malta, Mexico, Slovenia ..read more

The stylish side of preventive healthcare comes in the form of digital wearables like Apple Watch, Fitbit and smart rings, the use of which has seen astronomical growth since 2021. We examined this in the study “Connected Wellness: What’s Next In The Connected Economy,” a PYMNTS report with research sponsored by CareCredit, surveying over 3,200 U.S. consumers to discover steps they’re taking to head off health problems, with a focus on use of digital tools. We found that in just the nine months prior to August 2022, 10 million more U.S. consumers took to using websites and wearables to monitor ..read more

Here’s the latest news from the technology industry, which is coming under increasing scrutiny from governments in the U.S., the U.K. and Europe. EU Unveils First Drafts Of Digital Markets And Digital Services Acts The European Union’s governing European Commission published drafts of new rules for digital services that would cover social media, digital marketplaces and other platforms. The proposed Digital Markets Act (DMA) deals with the negative effects of some actions by platforms functioning as “gatekeepers” to a single market, according to the EC. The Digital Services Act (DSA) would enc ..read more

Even amid a crackdown on tech acquisitions, Google has managed to win European Union approval for its $2.1 billion purchase of fitness tracker Fitbit, according to Bloomberg. The move comes as regulators in the EU are looking at ways to keep U.S. Big Tech companies from over-extending their dominance of the markets. According to the EU, Google's pledge to keep access for rival health and fitness apps and device makers for the next decade cinched the decision and convinced them that Google's entry into the health and fitness field wouldn't bring antitrust concerns, Bloomberg reported. Margrethe ..read more

Whether you want to track your run times, monitor your sleep or try to avoid a sunburn, the market for wearable technology is growing and evolving as companies large and small try to cash in on one of the holiday season’s hottest segments. By some estimates, the wearables market is currently worth about $70 billion annually, a huge total sales figure. However, that actually implies a temporary stall in year-on-year growth due to COVID-related manufacturing disruptions during the second quarter that momentarily limited supplies of some products. Longer term, however, the wearables industry ..read more

If regulators wring concessions from Big Tech – in a way that blunts at least some of Big Tech’s competitive advantages – isn’t that enough to keep the watchdogs satisfied, giving rise to the level playing field they (in theory) want to create with more regulations? To put it another way: In the EU, recent actions surrounding the proposed Google-for-Fitbit deal hint that Google may be giving watchdogs the competitive landscape they want in the wearables market – but the  goalposts just got moved. Late last month, as reported in this space, regulators have been looking at the tec ..read more