A race for the lead in the wearables market
AUSTIN — It's 6:30 a.m. Thousands of runners are starting to line up near Second and Congress streets, and all Dylan Cornelius can think about is whether his Garmin Forerunner 220 watch is in sync with the printed list of mileage times strapped to his other wrist.
"The watch helps (my running) pace and maximize my performance," says Cornelius, 45, a participant in the 24th Austin Marathon and Half Marathon on Sunday. "Garmin was a game-changer for me." (The Austin native finished the full 26.2 miles.)
Cornelius was part of a group of about two dozen runners about to hit the hilly, winding course in Texas' capital. They met with a reporter the day before to discuss how health devices have changed the way they train and compete in long-distance events.
They were outfitted with Garmin watches over 12 weeks to train for the marathon. Nearly all of them credited the oval-shaped device with "increasing their motivation, performance and competitive edge," according to a survey by Freescale Semiconductor, the race's major sponsor.
Athletes across the nation are wearing fit-based devices on their wrists, chests and feet to measure their pace, distance and heartbeat. In their pursuit of fitness, they are helping define the contours of the wearables market.
"It's nice to reference your wrist and ear buds for (data) input," says Dean Karnazes, author of the best-selling Ultramarathon Man. He wears a Fitbit Surge today — he helped design the device — after starting with a Garmin six years ago.
"Running is much more popular now, and wearable technology has made it more popular," says Sujata Neidig, Americas business development manager, microcontrollers group, at Freescale. She finished the Houston marathon in mid-January and ran the half (13.1 miles) in Austin.
The fledgling market for wearable bands is slowly turning the nation into weekend warriors and would-be long-distance runners, says analyst Geoff Blaber, vice president of research-Americas, for CCS Insight.
CCS Insight predicts 214 million wearables will ship in 2017, including 100 million smartwatches. IDC, which is typically conservative in forecasting new markets, expects 19 million units shipped in 2014.
Americans' infatuation with devices like Fitbit Flex, Microsoft Band, Jawbone UP, Samsung Gear and more may get deeper in April, when the Apple Watch becomes available. CCS estimates Apple will ship 20 million watches in its first 12 months. (Market researcher Canalys says 720,000 Android Wear smartwatches shipped in 2014.)
"Apple is the elephant in the room," Blaber says.
As more Americans wear bands to track their health, the reasoning goes, more will join them. Apple CEO Tim Cook this month referred to sitting as "the new cancer."
The emergence of Apple colors a market that seems limitless. Freescale CEO Gregg Lowe points out that developers are coming up with new ideas that take advantage of computing power in ever-smaller devices. He mentions potential breakthrough products like Whistle, which measures the physical activity of dogs.
BACK AT THE MARATHON
At the Austin course, 15,000 people assemble to start around 7 a.m. There's the usual running gear: water bottles filled with energy drinks and supplements, hats and fanny packs. And most of them are wearing something on their wrists to check times.
Folks like Steve Crossland, 52, who paced his daughter Caroline, 18, during the first half of the hilly Austin course. (He finished the half, she the full marathon.) "I look at my watch every mile," Steve Crossland says. "The watch is a tool that sets your pace, but we don't want to become a slave to it."
Yet it is an obsession that millions of people are more than happy to indulge in. "You're never prepared to run a marathon, but this makes it easier and more manageable," says Cornelius, who is considering a triathlon.
Runners want more: Their fit device wish list includes apps that measure levels of hydration level and blood glucose.
Fitness has traditionally been a fertile place for runners, cyclists and other athletes to spend top dollar on any device that "improves your game," says Mike Bell, corporate vice president and general manager of Intel's New Devices Group.
"These are your early adapters, even if the device doesn't look great or is complex," Bell says.
The nut is coming up with a design and simplicity that appeals to a much wider audience. "There is room for lots of different types of devices," says Bell. Intel has worked with the likes of SMS Audio BioSport ear buds that measure heart rate and Basis Peak bands. The chipmaker is partnering with watch and sunglasses manufacturers.
"You want to keep it simple. We enjoy the benefits of new technology, but it can be overkill," says Meb Keflezighi, an Olympic silver medalist (2004) and winner of the Boston Marathon (2014) and New York City Marathon (2009).
"Listen to your body, not your watch," says Graham Bettis, 39, who finished his 10th marathon Sunday morning in Austin. "It's easy to get obsessed with a device, and look at it too frequently. But it is such an important tool to track distance and pace."