Qualcomm is betting that more kids will wear smartwatches

Qualcomm is betting that more kids will be sporting smartwatches soon.

San Diego chip maker Tuesday (Shanghai, China) unveiled its new Snapdragon Wear 2500 platform to help make children-oriented watches. Yes it is true. Smartwatches for kids.

Qualcomm manufactures chips for everything from smartphones to hybrid tablets-Windows 10 laptops. While it already provides processors for wearables, it sees a great opportunity in adapting its technology to the market for smartwatch kid growing. The Snapdragon Wear 2500 integrates 4G LTE connectivity with everything a device manufacturer needs to release children's watches.

"We see this as one of the fastest growing categories," said Anthony Murray, senior vice president and general manager of Qualcomm's voice, music and apparel business before the announcement. "We can see the interest proliferate around the world."

The wearables market has not yet exploded as much in the technologies expected. People use their devices extensively for notifications and fitness tracking, and it's hard for many providers – even Samsung – to compete with Apple and its popular Apple Watch. Last year, about 31% of all smartwatches shipped worldwide came from Apple, according to CCS Insights (Apple does not specify the number of Apple watches that it sells).

But there is one area of ​​smartwatches outside of Apple that is really booming – children's watches. According to CCS Insight, the market is so vast that children's smartwatches account for nearly half of the global smartwatch market.

"If you eliminate Apple, the wearable device market is rather unobtrusive," said Geoff Blaber, an analyst at CCS Insights. "But the trackers market is experiencing tremendous growth."

In 2015, only 6.6 million of the 22.5 million smartwatches shipped worldwide were for children, said CCS. In 2017, this figure reached 25.6 million, or half of the total market. Apple, by comparison, delivered 16 million smartwatches last year, estimated the company. This year, companies are expected to ship 31.5 million trackers of children, while CCS expects Apple to ship 22 million Apple watches.

Smart watches for kids were originally designed to keep parents in touch with their children. Once providers added GPS, they were more followers than smart wearables. Over time, smartwatch manufacturers packed into more features to do things like fitness control, take pictures, and even access certain apps and games.

These devices have not really taken off in the United States, but they are booming in China. Of the 32 million smartwatches that CCS Insight expects sellers to ship this year, 30 million will be in China.

"It makes perfect sense for Qualcomm to do something that is optimized," said Blaber of CCS Insight.

Specialized Snapdragon

Qualcomm's Snapdragon Wear 2500 platform integrates 4G LTE connectivity alongside a quad-core A7 processor, power management, charger, fuel gauge and airframe functionality. haptic pilot. It has an integrated sub-sensor with pre-optimized algorithms and low-power location tracking.

The Snapdragon Wear 2500 supports a 5MP camera, allows the watchmaker to integrate voice assistants such as Amazon's Alexa and Google's Assistant and includes the NFC for allow children to pay for their watches or touch their digital transit cards. It also supports gesture-based gaming and entertainment applications and allows you to track physical activity.

Snapdragon Wear 2500 includes a custom version of Android specifically designed for children 's watches based on the Android O of last year. It integrates into a 512 MB memory and is designed to consume little energy by disabling unnecessary capabilities, as well as adding specific features to the child watch.

A key point for Snapdragon 2500 is the battery life. The devices are expected to last about four days on a single charge, about double the normal range for traditional smartwatches, Murray said.

There are already 10 devices on the market that use Qualcomm's previous smartwatch technology. Huawei plans to build the first smartwatch based on Snapdragon Wear 2500 because of its "outstanding capabilities in energy efficiency, 4G connectivity, intelligent sensing and localization," the Chinese company said in a statement.

Chips for cheaper phones

With the announcement of Snapdragon 2500, Qualcomm unveiled Tuesday three new processors for mid-range smartphones, the Snapdragon 632, 439 and 429. Unlike its range of chips Snapdragon 800 for the most expensive and most expensive devices flashy – like the Samsung Galaxy S9 – The 600 and 400 line features are designed for more affordable devices.

Qualcomm said its new chips "are designed to provide better performance, better battery life, more efficient designs, impressive graphics and artificial intelligence" – features typically reserved for high-end phones – for these less expensive devices.

The Snapdragon 632 is 40% more powerful than its predecessors, the Snapdragon 625 and 626 chips, and it includes Qualcomm's high-speed X9 LTE ​​Advanced modem. Device manufacturers will be able to pack 4K video capture, AI, games and dual cameras at 13MP each in their phones.

The Snapdragon 439 and 429, designed for even cheaper phones, will allow handset manufacturers to provide AI to improve camera, voice capabilities and device security. They improve performance and energy efficiency by 25% over their predecessors and feature the LTE X6 modem, which is slower than the Snapdragon 632 LTE modem.

The handset vendors announced more than 1,350 devices based on the Snapdragon 600 chipset and more than 2,300 devices based on the Snapdragon 400-tier. The first devices using chips should be launched in the second half of 2018.

Tech Enabled: CNET tells the role of technology in providing new types of accessibility.

Blockchain Decoded: CNET is looking at bitcoin technology – and soon, a myriad of services that will change your life.