Although wearable devices and the data they generate have dominated talks about the future of education, research suggests these devices will have to become more useful in order to drive greater adoption.
The abandonment rate of smartwatches is 29 percent, and 30 percent for fitness trackers, because people do not find them useful, they get bored of them or they break, according to a survey by Gartner, Inc.
The 2016 Gartner Personal Technologies Study surveyed 9,592 online respondents from Australia, the U.S. and the U.K. between June and August 2016 to gain a better understanding of attitudes toward wearables, particularly buying behavior for smartwatches, fitness trackers and virtual reality (VR) glasses.
According to the survey, smartwatch adoption is still in the early adopter stage (10 percent), while fitness trackers have reached early mainstream (19 percent). Only 8 percent of consumers have used VR glasses/head-mounted displays (excluding cardboard types).
The research also revealed high abandonment rates for wearable devices.
(Next page: The role wearable devices could have in higher education)