Smart watch sales are soaring and Apple is on top. Spotify really wants you to listen to podcasts. And how software that promised us enhanced productivity can sometimes create more distraction.
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Trending on Google, the Apple Watch is defining the smart watch market. A report from CounterPoint Research shows smart watch sales are soaring, growing 48 per cent in the first quarter compared to last year. Apple is the clear market leader with 36 per cent share. Its smart watches grew in shipments by 49 per cent. Consumers really like the ECG ability, to track their heart rates. Samsung watches showed the most growth at 127 per cent, and hold 11 per cent of the market. Fitbit comes in third with 5.5 per cent market share. Since iPhone sales growth has been slowing lately for Apple, having its smart watches pick up some of that slack must come as a welcome signal for investors.
Also Trending on Google, Spotify is experimenting with inserting podcasts into personalized playlists. A playlist called “Your Daily Drive” was noticed out in the wild by some Spotify users last week. It combines short podcasts with music, all tailored to user tastes. Spotify isn’t commenting on the experiment. Spotify has been growing its base of podcast content as a way to divert users away from music. Every time a Spotify user listens to a song, Spotify has to pay that musical artist. That’s not the case with podcasts. That’s why Spotify is making acquisitions in the podcast area, such as Gimlet and Anchor.
https://www.linkedin.com/feed/news/the-next-big-distraction-at-work-4997050/
Trending on LinkedIn, is Slack ruining our work lives? Slack and other collaboration software was supposed to save us from our overburdened email inboxes. But instead, it’s just creating another source of distraction at work, argues Ranii Molla on Recode. The average employee at a big company that uses Slack is sending 200 messages per week. Power users can send 1,000 messages per day. Many of those messages are pointless – the meme of the moment, an animated GIF reaction, or photos of pets. Trying to keep up with the barrage can be a full time job in itself. And the worst part is, we still have email. So really we’ve added on to the business communications we conduct, instead of replacing an inefficient system.