The competition is getting tougher and tougher in the wearable technology niche. Smarwatches are popping up all over the place, with Pebble giving consumers a premium Steel smartwatch and Samsung releasing its new iteration of the Galaxy Gear. Price talks, so Qualcomm has started offering a good discount for its Toq smartwatch.
Qualcomm chopped off $100 from the tag price of the Toq smartwatch, bringing the price of both the black version and the limited white edition down to $249.99. The company hopes that this move will bring the sales numbers up since its launch before the end of 2013.
Toq has an ARM Cortex-M3 200MHz processor as its brain, operating under a 1.55-inch capacitive touchscreen that has a resolution of 288 x 192 pixels. The device can only be paired with Android phones and users can display incoming notifications as well as alerts on it. Qulacomm promises that the battery of the wearable gadget will last for several days, primarily due to the Mirasol display technology, which is not an energy hog and can be charged using a wireless charging dock that comes with the $250-deal.
"With the revolutionary Qualcomm Mirasol display technology, the Qualcomm Toq smartwatch delivers greater visibility to what you need to know, when you need to know it. Clearly visible even in direct sunlight and so power efficient that you can go multiple days between charges," the company stated on its website.
The watch also works with a Bluetooth headset so owners can accept calls while driving or simply on the go. It can be used as a remote control while listening to music files saved on the user's handset, too.
Owners of the wearable device can choose from several layouts and icons that will best suit their taste. The watch can also help health buffs track their fitness goals.
While the price has been slashed, Toq might still struggle because of the lack of developer support and the limited resources of Qualcomm when it comes to marketing the device. While its sticker price can now compete with the likes of Pebble, it cannot really elbow its way in to become a household name. More people even know more about the rumored-for-long-but-not-yet-seen iWatch of Apple than they do of the Qualcomm Toq.
The company, however, is trying its best to sell the product and serve its customers well. It has rolled out several software updates for the device this month. On Feb. 12, it rolled out a new beta activity tracker, world clock and an option to choose the temperature in Fahrenheit or Celsius.
A week after, the company released its SDK so more developers can come up with new features for the smartwatch. It also has gamified fitness by giving users scores for moving around, using the accelerometer of the device.
