My brother-in-law's comment on my new smartwatch made me question the whole category

He was over for dinner in Tacoma last week and saw my new fitness tracker. He just shrugged and said, 'I don't get it, my phone already tells me the time and counts my steps.' It was a simple point, but it stuck with me because it's true. Has anyone else had a moment that made you reconsider why you bought a specific gadget?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_quinn2mo ago

What about the sleep tracking though?

lucaslee2mo ago

Actually, sleep tracking on most wearables is still pretty basic. It mostly just guesses your sleep stages from movement and heart rate. I wouldn't make any big health decisions based on it.

hugo_schmidt2mo ago

My cousin asked a similar thing about my old smartwatch, and it made me realize I only wore it to get alerts without pulling out my phone. The battery life got annoying though, so I stopped. Maybe it's just me but sometimes these things feel like a solution looking for a problem.