Leading up to this coming week’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas—the annual gadget trade show with some 160,000 attendees—we’ve been getting emails. Lots of emails. And if those emails are any sign, we’re in for a lot of new wearable devices at CES.
That’s smart, because this is basically the last chance to launch one before the arrival of the Apple Watch—the wearable that’s best positioned for mainstream consumer success.
In the meantime, these product pitches below—pulled directly from emails we’ve received the past few weeks—range from the jargony to the hyperbolic to the seemingly potentially useful.
- “the first lifestyle wearable that uses enhanced neurosignaling to shift people’s state of mind in areas related to energy, calm and focus”
- “the next generation of truly meaningful wearable technology … [a] new wearable consumer pain therapy device”
- “hardware agnostic capabilities enabling first-person POV workplace collaboration for real-time project management … configure, deploy and manage industrialized wearable devices while capturing, quantifying and transforming data into actionable intelligence”
- “pioneering conversations with the next generation of wearables, applications, and other devices that we will experience as part of the connected home and connected enterprise, as well as the future of connected consumer health and fitness … including a voice-enabled consumer health app prototype on a wearable device“
- “the world’s first line of biometric smartwear“
- “never-before-seen wearable technologies, the intersection of culinary into 3D and robotics that fit into the everyday life”
- “our revolutionary new product … is the first heart rate and activity monitor that can be worn all day, every day to help athletes train to the peak of performance … a small sensor-filled adhesive strip that sticks to the user’s torso as comfortably and discretely as a Band-Aid”
- “text messaging sunglasses … [the CEO] believes the true case for wearables is in the enterprise, though it has practical applications for consumers, such as heads-up text messaging”
- “a new type of smart textile that turns garments into active motion sensors … used to make comfortable and washable clothing and provides users information not available from existing wearables, such as tips to improve posture and athletic movements”
- “a MouthGuard worn by football players and other athletes, with data sensors that relay real-time head impact data for concussion management protocols”
- “the global leader in eye tracking, is set to alter the gaming, wearable and VR / AR landscape in 2015″
- “unlike any other fitness tracker, the chest-based wearable combines motion analytics and heart rate to track your reps in the gym”
We’ll report back with the best ones from the show. Why all the excitement? Wearable devices are widely expected to take off—some say faster than smartphones and tablets. Morgan Stanley, for example, predicts 70 million wearable shipments worldwide in 2015, growing to 248 million in 2017. (It also estimates that wearables address $1.6 trillion in consumer and business spending, from fashion and fitness to healthcare and insurance.)