Significance of Cellular IoT in the Wearable Industry

By CIOReview | Friday, December 14, 2018

Internet of Things (IoT) has its reach all over the market and is being widely accepted. Cellular IoT a division of this technology has now become the need of wearable devices. The wearable device market has shown tremendous growth in the past few years and now to take a step further is adopting cellular IoT. Cellular has evident advantages over its alternatives in the wearable industry.

Mobility and Outdoor Connectivity: Wearable devices require mobility and outdoor connectivity to enhance their usability and demand. Devices like GPS tracker and fitness monitor struggle for connectivity which traditional wifi and Bluetooth technologies are unable to provide because of their short range. Technologies like LPWAN do not support mobility which brings the wearable industry to cellular IoT. This technology aids both, better connectivity and mobility resulting it to be embraced.

Voice Support: With cellular into role wearables are now enabled with voice service. The ability to support VoLTE allows making emergency calls from wearable without any accompanying phone. Features such as GPS positioning enhance the overall performance of cellular connected providing secured tracking and monitoring applications.

A few key points must be kept in mind prior to choose the cellular chipset for wearable.

Battery Life: Since wearable devices are mostly used in outdoors, one must pay attention to its battery life. Once a device is charged completely it must stay up till weeks or months, if possible. Longer battery life can be really helpful in emergency situations and also a deciding factor for consumers to opt the wearable.

Size of Chipset: Size always matters for wearables, they must be attractive, comfortable to wear in terms of size and weight without compromising performance. While Cat-4 and Cat-1 chipsets are smaller in size compared to other, allowing the manufacturers of wearable to work over new designs for their product.

Cost: A key criteria in all sectors. A product must be cost-effective for greater audience reach. Cellular IoT is being explored further for many cost-effective findings. Cost of wearables must be competitive for them to succeed.

The concept of cellular IoT combined with wearable would be highly effective in remote areas, for the elderly, emergency situation when it’s hard to reach modern-day cellular phones and request for help. In such scenarios cellular IoT enabled wearable will be automatically sending messages or signals to get an immediate rescue.