With Samsung and Apple creating almost half of all smartphones being sold in the world, many think the two companies will be equally big in the smartwatch and wearable device market that's set to bloom over the coming months. However, Broadcom CEO Scott McGregor doesn't believe either will dominate the smartwatch industry as they have the smartphone market, but will have to play along with a lot of other players making wearable tech.
In an interview with AllThingsD, McGregor said:
“There are, like, two companies that make half of all the smartphones on the planet. I think wearables are going to be different.”
McGregor takes the example of the various crowd-funded Kickstarter backed smartwatches that serve various niches, and says that the wearable product market is a lot bigger and will see a lot of small groups and companies coming up with their own take. Broadcom is even looking to supply its chips to these new and upcoming players, and also believes design will play a bigger role in smartwatches than it has in mobile.
While McGregor makes a good point, we do have to take into accounting the marketing power of both Apple and Samsung, and when you look at the number of devices the latter has on the market, smartwatches that communicate with those devices will be a great advantage card to dangle in front of prospective consumers. As for Apple, just the fact that its smartwatch will act as an accessory for the iPhone, which already enjoys the largest collection of third-party accessories, will be enough to give it an upper edge over the competition.
But then again, wearable tech and smartwatches are going to be new product categories, so we simply need to wait and watch who dominates the market and who has to play second fiddle to the big boys.
