Outlines Long-term Wearable Vision as it reaches 40+ Million Snapdragon Wear shipments
San Francisco, NFAPost: Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. outlined its overarching vision of the wearables space while highlighting several significant Snapdragon Wear Platform milestones.
In a press event, Qualcomm Technologies discussed its growing platform investments and announced the new Qualcomm® Wearables Ecosystem Accelerator Program. The company also announced that more than 60 wearable industry leaders such as Arm, BBK, Fossil, Oppo, Verizon, Vodafone, and Zebra will participate in the programme.
IDC Research Manager WW Mobile Device Trackers Jitesh Ubrani the wearables market grew 21% year-over-year and shows no signs of slowing down.
“Innovative form factors continue to emerge as consumers demand new use cases in wearable devices. The smartwatch segment is going well beyond health and fitness tracking, expanding across consumer and enterprise segments, and further fueling growth of the category,” said Jitesh Ubrani.
Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. senior director & global head, smart wearables Pankaj Kedia said Snapdragon Wear platforms are driving the industry, powering smartwatches for kids, seniors, and adults and smart trackers for pets and accessories.
“We are significantly growing our investments in leading-edge ground-up silicon, platforms, and technologies and plan to roll out new Snapdragon Wear platforms across segments over the next year to meet our long-term vision,” said Pankaj Kedia.
He also said Qualcomm envisions a hyper segmented world of wearables. “We believe Qualcomm Technologies has an important role to play to accelerate this reality by bringing together our platforms and investments to the ecosystem,” said Pankaj Kedia.
He also said Qualcomm Technologies is actively collaborating with its customers and partners with the aim of meeting the ever-changing needs of the consumers.
“We are delighted to announce the Qualcomm Wearables Ecosystem Accelerator Program today and have an ambitious set of activities planned. Our goal is to provide a vehicle in the industry where ecosystem members collaborate to deliver differentiated wearable experiences and inject new energy and innovation in this exciting space,”
Arm senior director of XR and wearables, Client Line of Business Ketan Shah said the wearables market continues to evolve across a range of form factors and use cases that require efficient performance for complex and immersive experiences.
“Arm is focused on providing the compute performance and security needed to enable next-generation wearable devices, and through the Qualcomm Wearables Ecosystem Accelerator Program, we will work closely with the wider ecosystem to drive collaboration and change across the industry,” said Ketan Shah.
Fossil Group, Inc Director of Category Strategy – Wearables Chris Hartley said Fossil Group always strive for new innovation and increased performance in products.
“Thanks to our continued partnership with Qualcomm and the launch of our upcoming smartwatches later this year, Fossil believes it’s bringing the best possible Wear OS smartwatch to the market this year,” said Chris Hartley.
Verizon Director of Product Management and Development said Verizon has been committed to growing the wearables industry, introduced various wearable products to help customers stay connected.
“We are excited to see the launch of the Qualcomm Wearables Ecosystem Accelerator Program, opportunity to collaborate with the broad ecosystem partners to continue to innovate and launch the diverse and innovative wearables products,” said Farhana Chaudhry.
Vodafone Group Services GmbH Global Products & Services Director Phil Patel said Vodafone is proud to participate in Qualcomm’s Wearables Ecosystem Accelerator programme, and its initiative to drive greater use and functionality of wearable consumer devices.
“Wearables are a part of the fabric of the next generation of telecommunications and will only be successful by combining the efforts of industry innovators in connectivity, semiconductors, hardware and user experience design. This combined effort will lead to innovations for consumers, such as Vodafone OneNumber, which enables wearable devices to connect without even needing a mobile phone,” said Phil Patel.
Zebra Technologies vice president of product management Julie Johnson Zebra Technologies has a long history of delivering innovative wearable solutions to meet the evolving needs of our Enterprise customers.
“As we continue to work with our customers in established and emerging use cases, we look forward to working with Qualcomm Technologies,” said Julie Johnson.
