In the week that saw a raft of tech companies announce new wearable products at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, research has found that just six per cent of Brits intend to jump on the bandwagon in the next 12 months. The online research, carried out by YouGov on behalf of The Bio Agency, involved 2,076 British consumers. Four per cent of women intend to buy a smartwatch in 2016 compared to seven per cent of men. Just two per cent of participants aged 55 and over were planning to do the same. Millennials were more likely to intend to purchase a smartwatch in the next 12 months than any other age group – with the figure rising to 11 per cent.

When asked what definition from a given list they felt best defined a connected product, people favoured the description “a digital product that is ‘smart’ and knows who I am or what I want” (24 per cent) and “a product or app that recognises me and my needs or lifestyle, and provides me with content or services relevant to my needs” (22 per cent). Peter Veash, CEO at The BIO Agency says: “In order for a connected product to be successful, it needs to enhance the customer’s digital experience and be genuinely useful in everyday life – the problem with smartwatches is that they don’t bring anything new to the table, and are merely an add-on to the ever-growing list of devices consumers use each day. What 94 per cent of our respondents are telling us is that they don’t intend to buy this kind of device – it’s up to the big tech companies to create something that changes their mind. In the meantime, in order to make such connected products useful for consumers, brands and retailers should focus on things like creating useful apps for smartphones, which most people already own.”

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