As smartwatches become more popular with users, Juniper Research expects them to become more popular with another group as well: advertisers.

According to the resarch firm, spending on smartwatch ads is expected to rise in the coming years, although even if it does hit the forecast of nearly $70 million by 2019, that’s kind of a tiny drop in the bucket compared with the amount of money spent on advertising for other forms of media.

Still, it raise the question of whether there’s room for any kind of advertising on a 1.6 inch display you wear on your wrist.

Part of the point of wearables like smartwatches is that they offer information-at-a-glance to save you the time it would take to pull your phone out of your pocket, unlock the screen, and look something up.

Not only can you tell the time by glancing at your smartwatch, but you can also see caller ID for incoming phone calls, details about your latest chat or social media messages, or other notifications.

Sure, you might want to spend a little more time with your watch screen if you’re using it to search the web, order a pizza or even play a game. But generally speaking smartwatches aren’t designed to be used the same way as phones or tablets… and that means that ads which you need to dismiss or wait through before you can use an app could be a lot more annoying on a watch than on a phone.

But maybe advertisers will rise to the challenge and come up with some form of way to communicate messages in novel ways that seem appealing rather than annoying.

Yeah, yeah, I know… why start now? But if I had a nickel for every time I’ve heard someone say they watched the Super Bowl just for the ads, I’d have, well, at least a few nickels. Not everyone hates advertising all the time.

via ZDNet

Share this article: Share this: Facebook

Twitter

Reddit

Pocket

Tumblr

Pinterest

LinkedIn

Email

