An Irvine startup released its first line of smart watches in the U.S. last week, beating several big-name electronics companies out of the gate in the race for early market share.
Martian Watches landed on the showroom floor of AT&T’s 10,000-square-foot flagship store in downtown Chicago, where early adopters and tech enthusiasts are wooed by an apps bar that serves up custom demos, an 18-foot digital wall that displays interactive content and product information, and a Lifestyles Boutique, which organizes devices and accessories based on consumers’ hobbies and needs.
“Initially we were going to be in stores where there was a lot of hands-on training,” said President Stan Kinsey. “But now we’re finding that most people have heard of the concept. The landscape has really changed.”
Newcomers such as Martian can thank Samsung Electronics Co., Qualcomm Corp. and Nissan Motor Co. for generating plenty of buzz in the past few weeks with smartphone announcements.
Rumor blogs that focus on technology and Apple Inc. also have fueled the conversation as the industry watchers await a smart watch announcement from the Cupertino-based company.
Martian welcomes the competition and the attention.
“We’ve benefited greatly from the announcements of competitor products,” Kinsey said. “It only legitimizes the category.”
Broadcom
Broadcom Corp. in Irvine is the latest and most prominent Orange County company to enter the wearable electronics market, a segment that’s forecast to double sales industrywide to more than $1.5 billion by 2014, according to U.K.-based Juniper Research Ltd.
Broadcom—which specializes in connectivity chips that power Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS and other applications in smartphones, tablets and PCs—is targeting wearable electronics with a new line of chips for embedded devices, such as body sensors, glasses, jewelry, cameras, locks, apparel and accessories.
“This year is really the coming out party,” said Brian Bedrosian, senior director of embedded wireless in the Mobile and Wireless Group.
The framework to build the wearable business line was crafted years ago at Broadcom and strengthened with its 2010 acquisition of Australia-based G2 Microsystems Inc., which developed an ultralow-power Wi-Fi systems-on-a-chip for mobile devices, real-time location, wireless sensing and tracking.
Dozens of engineers from California and other global locations have been pooled together to develop a turn-key solution for original equipment makers.
“Broadcom has invested a huge amount of money and talent in Northern and Southern California for this business over the years,” said Scott Pomerantz, senior vice president and general manager of the company’s Wireless Connectivity Combos division.
Pushing turn-key solutions underscores an ongoing shift at Broadcom as the company competes with San Diego rival Qualcomm and others on combo chips, which carry numerous functions, take up less space on circuit boards, and improve connectivity.
Qualcomm—shortly after Broadcom’s chip announcement—announced its own line of low-power, Wi-Fi chips aimed at security and automation systems, home lighting and consumer electronics, among other things.
Qualcomm already has picked up a design win with China-based electronics and home appliance maker Haier Group.
Other OC Offerings
Irvine startup Pear Sports LLC is targeting fitness buffs with a product that fuses a mobile application for a wearable device that provides audio coaching with sensors attached to the body. The sensors receive data, including information on heart rate and speed.
The data is transmitted to the cloud, where it is analyzed to improve workout performance in real time.
The product—which costs about $100 and includes a heart rate monitor and headphones—competes against similar fitness trackers from the likes of Nike, Adidas and Jawbone in an emerging segment that faces some challenges in adoption, according to analyst Sarah Rotman Epps.
Rotman Epps, who covers the evolution of personal computing from the San Francisco office of Massachusetts-based Forrester Research Inc., estimated there are about 8 million customers with genuine interest in wearables at this point.
Companies will have to compete to win every customer in this “relatively limited market,” she wrote in a research report early this year.
That’s why Pear executives think they have a better product than competitors, and some early data indicates success.
The company’s app available at the Apple Store is averaging between 6,000 and 8,000 downloads per month, according to cofounder Robert Allison, who launched Pear in 2011.
“We feel very good about that product that has been out for about six months,” Allison said.
About 3,000 units of the company’s first product—a mini radio with memory, dubbed Pear Pro, that tracked speed, caloric burn and other factors—have sold for about $100 apiece.
Perhaps no other company in Orange County has generated as many headlines in the wearable segment as Irvine startup Oculus VR Inc., which developed a virtual-reality headset that immerses users in an interactive 3D world.
The company in June raised $16 million in its first institutional funding round to bring its $300 device to market. That followed raising more than $2.4 million on the crowdfunding site Kickstarter, nearly 10 times its fundraising goal.
Oculus has shipped more than 10,000 development kits, which include the headset.
“It’s going to be awesome to see what you can do with this,” Chief Executive Brendan Iribe told the Business Journal during a product demo at the E3 gaming conference in Los Angeles earlier this year. “You can’t resist, once you hit that HD experience, that there’s other applications beyond gaming.”
