QUALCOMM Toq — innovation over desperation
QUALCOMM, Inc. (NASDAQ:QCOM)’s new Toq smartwatch, on the other hand, also costs $300, but the world’s largest manufacturer of wireless chips isn’t counting on it to become a best-selling device. In fact, QUALCOMM, Inc. (NASDAQ:QCOM) only expects to make “tens of thousands” of units.
Source: Qualcomm.com
Although the Toq has similar features to the Galaxy Gear, the Toq lacks a camera and runs on a slower 200MHz processor compared to the Gear’s 800 Mhz one. The Toq is compatible with all current generation Android devices.
However, the Toq is an exercise in innovation rather than desperation for the company.
The Toq’s key feature is its Mirasol screen, a new display technology developed by QUALCOMM, Inc. (NASDAQ:QCOM) which creates color from ambient light — sipping only a fraction of the power of traditional LCD displays. The Gear, by comparison, uses the same AMOLED display used in its newer Galaxy devices.
Simply put, the Toq is a prototype showcase piece. Many investors are overlooking Qualcomm’s intended target: the health care enterprise industry. Qualcomm has more ambitious plans than Samsung, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), or Sony Corporation (ADR) (NYSE:SNE) — it intends to sow the seeds for a new generation of cloud-connected products that could revolutionize health care and other industries.
In 2011, Qualcomm and the X-Prize foundation announced a $10 million competition to create a working version of Star Trek‘s medical tricorder from existing mobile technologies. Last month, Qualcomm partnered with Palomar Health to create Glassomics, an idea incubator to explore the possible applications of wearable technology in health care.
Therefore, the Toq’s lower-powered display and Android capability could actually be aimed at that audience, and not mainstream consumers. It might just be a way to gain some free publicity for Qualcomm’s other wearable tech efforts.
A Foolish final thought
In the end, however, it’s Sony Corporation (ADR) (NYSE:SNE) that must go back to the drawing board after Samsung’s Galaxy Gear hits the markets. Sony Corporation (ADR) (NYSE:SNE)’s SmartWatch 2, which had already been met with mixed reviews, costs $262 and lacks the Gear’s camera and mobile sensors. Therefore, Sony Corporation (ADR) (NYSE:SNE) must either sell the SmartWatch 2 at a steep discount or to discontinue it if it wants to stay in the smartwatch race.
I believe that these current watches will not be game-changers in the mobile industry. New tech has to arrive at the right time — look at the evolution of MP3 players and tablets for a recent example — to be successful. There must be a perfect balance of price, power, and design that appeals to the masses — the balance that Steve Jobs mastered in his final years.
That time has not yet arrived for smartwatches, and in the end, it might just be Apple’s delayed release that arrives at just the right time.
The article Tales of Desperation and Innovation in Smartwatch Land originally appeared on Fool.com and is written by Leo Sun.
Leo Sun owns shares of Apple. The Motley Fool recommends Apple. The Motley Fool owns shares of Apple and Qualcomm.
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