I remember Garmin. So Garmin has gotten into the market for wearable technology (I guess Tom-Tom and Magellan must be doing the same thing as how irrelevant have stand-alone GPS units become?). I find it interesting that as a growing panacea (because that’s really what it is) wearable technology has received so much attention, interest and investment from large players like Apple, Google, Samsung and Nike, just to name a few.
Why do I say that ‘wearables’ have far to go? Because people will tire and ultimately not want to visibly wear technology. Google Glass is cool and I definitely want to try one but I don’t see myself wearing a Google Glass for all of my waking hours. Which begs the question – when to wear the technology and when not to? I’m interested and curious enough to try wearables (on the wrist is most common), to monitor my health, activities, and conditions. The idea that I want to look at my wrist to access things on my phone is, I guess, the future and will become normal behavior (as if I am too lazy to take out my phone?).
Are you going to ‘wear’ an Apple smart watch to bed every night? It would monitor your sleep patterns which is cool and interesting – once or twice but every single night? I don’t know about you but when I sleep I want to be as comfortable as possible. Having something on my wrist while asleep is not and cannot be more comfortable than going without.
I look at the path of wearable technology as just that – a path. Today it is ‘watches’ (those of us that remember reading the Dick Tracy comic and he had the coolest watch) that are the default wearable, but in the end I see wearables as a chip (that will be virtually invisible) that is placed behind your ear. In my view, a behind the ear wearable is something that could be truly worn 24/7 without interfering with your outfit, (i.e. how would wearable technology look with an evening gown, or bathing suit?).
People are far more concerned with their appearance in the long run. Visible wearables will be replaced by invisible or barely perceptible wearables.
Do you agree or disagree?
The Way I See It - Mark Kolier 
I agree. I really don’t get the current offerings. A co-worker has a watch that is “connected” to his cell phone. To me that is technology for technologies sake and I don’t see any value. Google glass might be interesting, but I only see it as a niche product (use when traveling?). The real value will come when we can project a screen into the air (sci-fi stuff, I know) then our Phone will replace our laptop and cloud services will be what we depend on.
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Technology for its own sake. Great point Pete. I tend to think of things in terms of the way people will behave in the long run. This generation of wearable technology (Google Glass and watches for example) is truly in the nascent stage .
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