Sony's First-Mover Disadvantage in Smart Watches

With growth slowing in the $358 billion smartphone and tablet market, Apple and Samsung are said to be developing digital watches that allow users to make calls, check map coordinates, or monitor physical activity. They might want to talk to Sony, whose feature-laden SmartWatch, on sale for more than a year, isn’t exactly mesmerizing the masses.

Priced at $130, Sony’s 1.3-inch touchscreen watch wirelessly connects to Android smartphones using Bluetooth technology. The gadget alerts users to incoming calls and allows them to reply to e-mails or texts with an array of prewritten messages. It even connects to Facebook and Twitter and controls a wearer’s phone-based music library. The SmartWatch, about the size of an iPod nano, is a slightly smaller successor to Sony’s LiveView watch. Introduced in 2010, LiveView had more limited features and was hobbled by kinks.