Casio kept quiet about its smartwatch ambitions for the last four years, but the watch maker hasn't been idle. Next March, Casio hopes to launch its first smartwatch and it isn't taking aim at the low end of market.
Revelations of Casio's upcoming smartwatch spilled straight from the mouth of the company's president and chief operating officer, Kazuhiro Kashio, and were penned down by the Wall Street Journal.
"We are trying to bring our smartwatch to a level of watch perfection: a device that won't break easily, is simple to put on and feels good to wear," Kashio said.
The smartwatch will launch in the US and Japan in March of 2016 and is expected to have a price range of $400, it'll go on sale in US for $349. It wasn't made clear what operating system the smartwatch will use, but it doesn't sound as the watch will be decked in Android Wear.
The electronics manufacturer has set a target of $80 million in sales of its smartwatch. And while the wearables are expected to continue its lightning coming of age, Casio understands this avenue won't be friend of aggressive traffic.
"I don't think the smartwatch will be an instant success but we want it to grow in the long term," Kashio said.
Casio, whose business extends beyond watches, has technically been creating smartwatches for decades now, though its past offerings don't qualify with the modern interpretation of the wearables.
One way to classify many of Casio's past creations is the term "basic wearable," wearable tech that doesn't interact with third-party software, as the IDC Group describes. Casio's smartwatch, which is meant to be simple, sounds as if it may qualify as a basic wearable, and that's alright.
While smart wearables are about to bound forward, Ramon Llamas, a research manager on IDC's Wearables Team, said basic wearable won't disappear anytime soon.
"In fact, we anticipate continued growth here as many segments of the market seek out simple, single-use wearable devices," said Llamas.
IDC is projecting that sales of wearables will climb up to about 126.1 million units shipped by 2019, so there's plenty of room and opportunity for Casio to hit that $80 million mark with its smartwatch.
