Legendary wearable reviewer Ray “DC Rainmaker” Maker, offered a bold take on what the next generation of devices need to achieve to maintain an edge. “The next big challenge for wearables is go beyond making data actionable,” he said. “There is an opportunity to use data to provide immediate next steps for the user to take… you want to be able to say, ‘this is the one thing that you need to do next.’ This is different from saying here’s 5 things you could do, but here’s the one thing you should do.”

2. DC
RAINMAKER
THE FUTURE OF WEARABLES

3. THE DANGERS OF TWITTER
• 152 Musical Selections
• 2,559 Instigators
• 51,406 Winners
• 1 Sexy Loser

4. A BIT ABOUT THE SITE
• Started in Sept 2007 as a personal blog
• All about in-depth technology reviews…but
also first looks and previews
• Reviews are the primary initial driver of traffic
• Over 4 Million page views/month, 3 Million
uniques/month
• 80K on Facebook, 50K on Twitter, ~70K on
YouTube
• Revenue based primarily on affiliate links
• No advertising from product segment I review

5. WHAT IS A WEARABLE?
• Wrist based devices
• Activity Tracker Bands
• Watches with a watch face
• Small motion/HR sensors
• Upper arm devices
• Largely heart rate sensors
• Also muscle oxygen devices
• Chest devices
• Heart Rate sensors (clothing and separate)
• Motion capture sensors
• Lower body devices
• Muscle Oxygen
• Motion capture (running efficiency)

6. WEARABLE NORMS IN 2018
• Activity tracking is now baseline
• Sleep tracking is now baseline
• Optical HR is now baseline
• Smartphone notifications are now baseline
• Smartphone apps connected to your platform
are now baseline
• Basic platform interoperability is now baseline
• Exporting of data is now baseline (thanks
GDPR!)

7. EARLY 2018 WEARABLE TRENDS
• Music is a must for wearables above
$200-$250
• Contactless payments a must above
$250
• GPS oddly not a given at $200
• New entrants in $300+ watch range
• Leveraging HR data for better analytics
• Devices edging closer to medical status

8. MUSIC SERVICES ARE THE NEW
API’S• Music is a potential gateway drug for
better workouts
• Music providers have to be where the users
are, or they’ll get left behind
• The single biggest reason for Strava’s
success is it’s API.
• Music providers need to be like social
networks – easily accessible from any
device no matter where a user is
• Wearable devices should be as music
provider agnostic as possible

9. WEARABLE PLAYER
EXPANSION
• Last year was mostly quiet for new players
• 2018 is shaping up to see significant new
entrant expansion: Coros, Amazfit, and
others
• Many driven heavily by Asian low-cost
entrants targeting traditionally high-end
markets
• And as always, startups attempting to shake
the market
• But…these entrants must follow the rules.

10. BUT LOW COST DOESN’T MEAN
BAD
• A number of low-cost brands are now
leveraging licensed metrics/analytics
• Same goes for non-traditional sports
companies
• Sony
• Samsung
• Huawei
• This immediately puts these entities on par
with metric-wise established players:
Garmin/TomTom/Polar/Suunto

11. THE SPLITTING OF PLATFORMS
• The wearable operating system
• Apple: WatchOS
• Fitbit: Fitbit OS
• Garmin: Connect IQ
• Samsung: Tizen
• Everyone else: Wear OS
Suunto & Polar: Self
• Separation of the watch from the data
• Apple has really accelerated this
• Some users never use stock workout apps
• Data no longer residing within Apple Ecosystem

12. WHAT ARE THE APP TRENDS
TODAY?
• Useful device and platform
integration
• No longer about beer counters
• Actually about leveraging a business
opportunity
• Almost everyone here is aiming to
promote something else they’re
doing (again, not beer apps)

13. USERS ARE ADAPTING WHERE
PLATFORMS FAIL
• Users are willing to use 3rd party apps to a
point
• Apple Watch Triathlete
• But ultimately, people want cohesive
experiences
• Having to manage weight in one platform and
steps in another and workouts in another just isn’t
logical
• They don’t want data spread everywhere,
especially as concerns around privacy rise

14. WEARABLE ISSUES IN 2018
• Data is still too confusing
• So much data being collected, but
very little is actually leveraged
• GDPR Implementation
• Failures of fitness platforms to
protect data
• Misunderstandings by users on how
their data is visible

15. THE CHALLENGES OF BAD STUDIES –
PART 1
• Major studies get mainstream media
attention – scares people away
• A prestigious institution can still
screw up a basic study
• Placed watches next to each other
• Impacts steps (which impacts distance)
• Impacts heart rate (which impacts
calories, stress, and many other metrics)

16. THE CHALLENGES OF BAD STUDIES
– PART 2
• Use proper data methods to get data
• When looking at HR/Step/Etc data, all data must
be used, not a portion of it
• “…consequently, in the 5 minute protocol for each
activity, we used the energy expenditure and heart
rate for the final minute of the protocol (to ensure
that a “steady state” rather than transient
measurement was obtained).”
• Use the end user data, not ‘behind the scenes’
methods
• PulseOn data libraries skipped the FirstBeat
processed calorie data

17. FITNESS PLATFORM
SECURITY
• Acquisitions/Integrations are really
really tough
• Under Armour is likely the start of
media-worthy issues
• Strava also fell into data privacy trap
• Security in platforms is hardly new, but
the implications of the data is different
here
• Various international laws will make this
more prevalent sooner

18. GOING FORWARD:
WEARABLES• More acceptance of contactless payments: Australia
vs France vs USA
• These matter to increase adoption – increase reasons for a
device means increased activity tracking
• Optical HR has become dial-tone for anything over
$100 these days
• [Android] Wear OS continues to struggle to find a
place to thrive
• Re-focusing on getting value from HR driven metrics
• Consistency across a platform:
• We’ll see the rise (and fall) of connected GPS
devices
• A temporary step backwards

19. GOING FORWARD: ALL ABOUT
THE LABS
• Platforms are starting to put the puzzle pieces
together
• Too many silos of information:
• Heart rate silo
• Stress silo
• Sleep silo
• Workout silo
• Seeing companies like Fitbit and FirstBeat begin to
integrate these slightly
• Why doesn’t my watch offer soft piano music yet?

20. GOING FORWARD: MEDICAL
MAYBE
• Fitbit dances around with medical
plans with Ionic/Versa
• Apple pokes via 3rd party apps at
medical use cases
• Garmin Connect IQ 3.0 expanded
level of heart rate data access

21. GOING FORWARD:
PLATFORMS
• Platform consolidation has essentially
stopped
• Coaching, coaching, coach. Everyone,
wants to coach everyone.
• Now it’s about adaptive aspects. How can
you make your offering truly respond to
the individual?
• Xert has really been leading in this space
for serious athletes, but Fitbit is starting to
make a run for the general consumer.

22. THE BIGGEST
OPPORTUNITIES
• Not just actionable data, but immediate next
steps
• Actionable data still offloads too big of
decision tree to user
• Couch to 5K are no different than
Olympians: They both want specifics
• The source of the advice merely differs
• Just make cool shit – it appeals to everyone

23. HOW I DO REVIEWS

24. TYPES OF POSTS
• ‘First Look’ posts:
• Typically trade-show driven posts (not reviews)
• Where I can’t take the product ‘outside’ or otherwise
use it meaningfully
• Initial ‘Hands-On’ posts
• Last-minute posts, 1-3 days pre-launch (not reviews)
• Designed to explain product, usually based on pre-
release hardware/software
• In-Depth Reviews
• Full in-depth review with final hardware/software

25. WAYS TO ENGAGE WITH ME
• Method 1: NDA discussions/product
access, far in advance of product
release, private beta feedback.
• Method 2: Product launch timed review.
Pre-availability product usually under
NDA until public announcement.
• Method 3: Post-release review (already
in market product). Usually less time
sensitive.

26. Thanks!
(I’m here till 5PM)
Contact info:
Ray@dcrainmaker.com
www.dcrainmaker.com
The Twitter: @dcrainmakerblog