Internet of Things & Wearable Technology Insights

Believe it or not, today’s Tech World isn’t the first time Lenovo has shown off a pair of smart sneakers. Just about this time last year, the company revealed a pair of kicks with the unique ability to determine and display their wearer’s mood. How the concept wearable actually worked and why anyone might possibly want to do such a thing weren’t entirely clear, but hey, look, a happy face.

It’s not likely to get as much notice as the new Project Tango handset Lenovo showed off at today’s press event, but the company’s latest take on connected sneakers does appear to be a fair bit more subdued than the product it showed off last year.

We’re still awaiting specifics, but the smart shoes seem to have the sort of fitness data collection one would expect from such a wearable, tracking users’ distance and calories, etc. There‘s also some gaming functionality built into the product — motion tracking, perhaps? — along with LEDs embedded in the soles.

A new report by Gartner has predicted that the currently negligible sector of smart garments will storm past smart watches and fitness bands to become the bestselling area of the wearables industry by 2016.  Elsewhere in the report, the firm expects that smart watches will become the number one area in 2015, overtaking the 2014 joint leaders – fitness bands and other fitness monitors. 

2014 has actually seen a slight decrease in the number of units shipped, down to 70.3 million from 73.01 million in 2013. Of those 70 million, there were 20 million fitness bands (-10 million compared to 2013) 18 million fitness monitors (+2 million), 18 million smart watches (+4 million) and 12 million chest straps (+1 million). Gartner expect the total units sold will drop again in 2015 – down to 68 million – before increasing by in excess of 20 million to 91.3 million in 2016.