The Japanese tech giant evoked the 'kando' concept at CES, describing how technology needs to deliver an emotional as well as functional value

Smart wearables shouldn’t be about nagging fitness trackers like the Fitbit or Nike FuelBand according to Sony, but should be about the fun - a market the company thinks it can dominate.

The plethora of activity trackers, which have been battling for attention at the vast Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas this week, have become the subject of crticism for a kind of electronic harassment, guilt-tripping wearers into reaching arbitrary step or general activity goals.

“It is the difference between motion - just your movements - and emotion, how you emotionally get more fun out of your life,” said Dennis van Schie, senior vice president, head of sales and marketing for Sony Mobile Communications talking to the Guardian in Las Vegas.

Japanese concept of kando

Sony's president and chief executive, Kazuo Hirai, said the company was drawing on the Japanese concept of kando – the ability to deliver not just functional but emotional value.

“Business-wise, where we see the money and trend developing is in ‘infotainment’ – it’s the area to go for and the market space to conquer, innovate and change,” van Schie said, bullishly.

To attempt to dominate the “infotainment” space, Sony launched its SmartBand, a device that displays alerts from a connected phone over Bluetooth. SmartBand is a motion-tracking sensor like many of the others, but connects to Sony’s new Lifelog app to track more than just your motion or fitness.

'A tremendous opportunity'

The paired band and app combination records what you listen to, where you were and who you were communicating with at the time - just the beginning of a data centric service that Sony will gather from users, expanding the service according to usage patterns and feedback.

“Over time we have a tremendous opportunity to develop the Lifelog application in so many different ways,” he said. “For now it’s measuring the basics, physical activity, your social activity – your calls, texts and Facebook – and your entertainment, your music.”

Van Schie explained that it was not about the hardware but about the experience, and about what that experience can add to your life through data as well as entertainment.

Users of Facebook and social media are sharing more and more information, and Sony thinks that the Lifelog system can exploit that sharing mentality, allowing users to share with friends and family what they listen to while working out or going about their day, or other important events.

Whether this kind of detailed “oversharing” is what consumers actually want remains to be seen.

Five minutes of fame

Warning that many of these wearables, like the SmartBand, are likely to see their features integrated into smartphones and other consumer electronic devices that make them redundant, Ben Wood, CCS Insight's chief of research said that "many wearable devices will have their five minutes of fame at shows like CES before disappearing into oblivion."

Sony has had its fair share of products flop over the years - acutely highlighted by Hirai during his CES opening keynote. He earned some easy laughs showing a screen of Sony products that failed in the market quipping, “don’t worry if you don’t remember any of these products, neither does the rest of the world.”

• No time to visit every stand at CES? Read our list of the best wearables and fitness trackers instead