Maaz Saleem

ENGG950 INDIVIDUAL DESIGN STATEMENT

SMARTWATCHES POWER SOURCE

ALTERNATIVES
According to International Data Corporations (IDC) press release,
smartwatch vendor sold 5.1 million units in 2015 and only 3.5
million in 2Q16, a decline of nearly 32% [1]. The decline was seen as a
result of many flaws; launch timings, limited apps, battery life. The
consumers pinpointed in a survey that they find charging smartwatches as
an added inconvenience to their already power hungry devices; laptops,
smartphones, ereaders [2]. Most of the smartwatch vendors promised only a
battery life of one day with the best offering two days of battery life. In
order to improve the user experience, new features are being added
but that only means more power drainage, which no one is currently
looking into with their prime focus being the smartphones. In an
article published by Mouser Electronics, the best the manufacturers offering
are wireless charging, power management, battery replacement [3]. No one
is looking into alternative sources for actually extending the battery life.

In this highly competitive market era any slight advantage sees a huge
increase in sales, for instance Tim Cook, CEO Apple, recently hinted in an
interview that the other products category is currently dependant on Apple
watch and the added features, GPS, water-resistant, helped Apple to set the
sales record since its launch, but no figures were released and the battery
life was once again compromised doing so [4]. There is a great
opportunity for any vendor to be the pioneer by looking for any
secondary power source that could extend the battery life of the
watches. Another survey showed that consumers look at the battery life
before ordering their smartwatches, thus extending the battery life would
give the pioneer an advantage in sales over its competitors. Only a couple
of added features apparently helped Apple hit its record smartwatch
sales, imagine what a headline claiming extended battery life would
do, which is the current smartwatch market crisis. And this would
continue declining if consumer experience keeps getting improved and the
battery life stays intact.

My objective of this paper was to find a way to extend the battery

life of the smartwatches by implementing alternative power sources
to them. While researching I came across a Japanese electronics company,
Kyocera, who recently introduced a transparent solar cell film [5]. Because of
 Maaz Saleem

ENGG950 INDIVIDUAL DESIGN STATEMENT

its transparent nature, it can easily be placed under the watchs touchscreen
without obscuring the display quality and the energy produced is fed to the
primary power source. Moreover, thermoelectric generators (TEG) can be
placed around the strap of the watch to harvest electricity from body heat
[6]. Together these two sources can improve the battery life significantly.
 Maaz Saleem

ENGG950 INDIVIDUAL DESIGN STATEMENT

References
[1] Michael Shirer, Wearables, idc.com, para. 1, July 21, 2016. [Online]. Available:
https://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prUS41611516

[2] Alex Cranz, Smartwatches Are Dying Because They Are Worthless gizmodo.com,
para. 3, December 15, 2016. [Online]. Available: http://gizmodo.com/smartwatches-are-
dying-because-they-are-worthless-1790001341

[3] Landa Culbertson, Extending the Battery Life of Wearable Devices

mouserelectronics.com, 2016. [Online]. Available: https://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?
containerId=prUS416115http://www.mouser.com/pdfdocs/PublicRelations_TechArticle_Ex
tendingBatLifeWearables_2015Final.PDF16

[4] Roger Fingis, Apple Watch sales set new 'record' during holidays, but no numbers
revealed appleinsider.com, para. 3, January 31, 2017. [Online]. Available:
http://appleinsider.com/articles/17/01/31/apple-watch-sales-set-new-record-during-
holidays-but-no-numbers-revealed

[5] Matt Safford, Solar Panels in the Screens of Smartphones Could Power the Devices,
smithsonianmag.com, para. 3, March 5, 2015. [Online]. Available:
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/solar-panels-in-the-screens-of-smartphones-
could-power-the-devices-180954457/

[6] G. Jeffrey Snyder, Small Thermoelectric Generators, electrochem.org, para. 8, Fall,

2008. [Online]. Available: https://www.electrochem.org/dl/interface/fal/fal08/fal08_p54-
56.pdf