Sony wants a new venture-style approach when it comes to creating its future products. One product the company is pushing to launch in 2015 is a smart watch that has an e-paper display. The watch will focus more on style over the functionality commonly found in other complex wearable devices such as the Apple Watch and the company's own Sony SmartWatch.
The watch will be one of the first products that will be produced by the company's new division formed and directly controlled by Sony CEO Kaz Hirai. Otherwise referred to as the business creation division, the aim is to fast-track promising products and perhaps create something that would carry on the popularity of the company's once-celebrated products such as the Walkman and the Trinitron television.
"The innovation program is very important, but it will take time and require some risk-taking," said Professor Sadao Nagaoka of Hitotsubashi University in Tokyo. "It's not that Sony ran out of new ideas, but rather, it's taking too long to restructure."
E-paper is the familiar technology found in devices such as Kindle which uses a low-power "electronic paper" display. This build type allows legibility in a display as it reflects light instead of emitting it, which is usually the case with standard LCD displays. The same thing happens when the display is placed under direct sunlight.
The purpose of building the entire wearable from e-paper is to allow users to change the device's look whenever it's needed without having to switch out its physical faces or bands. Doing so will enable users to take advantage of the device's ability to adapt to various styles and customizable features, which it prioritizes over functionality.
While it is true that the wearable technology market is still on a nascent stage as there were only 22 million of such devices that were sold worldwide for the fiscal year, it is speculated that the industry will grow fivefold within the next 5 years. More than 50 percent of the wearable devices made have targeted the wrist and some of them even catered to health buffs, such as the fitness trackers of Fitbit.
"Smart watches don't sell now because there is little reason to buy one, since your smartphone can do it all anyway," said senior consultant Taichiro Nakayama at the Nomura Research in Tokyo.
