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A new report from Gartner says that 29 percent of smartwatch owners and 30 percent of fitness tracker owners have stopped using their wearables. “Dropout from device usage is a serious problem for the industry,” said Angela McIntyre, research director at Gartner. “The abandonment rate is quite high relative to the usage rate. To offer a compelling enough value proposition, the uses for wearable devices need to be distinct from what smartphones typically provide. Wearables makers need to engage users with incentives and gamification.”
Only 10 percent of those surveyed have smartwatches, compared to 19 percent who have fitness trackers and 8 percent who have virtual reality glasses or head-mounted displays.
The low adoption and high abandonment rate for wearables could be bad news for mobile development firms with smartwatch apps.
