Revolution: wearable technology

After the smartphone and table revolution, the next big thing in the tech world seems to be wearable gadgets. After the full saturation of these two markets, which are quite important for these kind of companies, the technology giants are attempting to claim this new area of the market. Potential game changer, these could completely revolutionise the way we interact with our gadgets, affecting even more of our lives than all our smartphones and tablets already do.

Google, undeniably one of the “bigs”, was the first to jump the gun with its “Project Glass”. These glasses are quite spartan, formed only of an aluminium strip, nose pads and a piece of glass with the projector. The OS of the Glasses is said to be Android, so more than likely it will feed into the whole Android ecosystem that Google has going. This product really came into the public’s view when product testing began in April 2012. The glasses were worn by the Sergey Brin, one of the Co-Founders of Google, at various public events as well as demoed with several extreme sports athletes and broadcasted on Google+.

The internet is awash with rumours that Apple, another big boy on the tech company block, is now also about to jump onto the wearable gadget ship with its iWatch. The conspiracy theorists are having a field day with this one, wondering if Apple themselves may be responsible for the ‘leaks’. The iWatch has been rumour since 2007 its been a constant fallback for tech journalists when news on Apple was rare. However, now a days, the iWatch may actually become reality. An accessory to other iDevices more than an actual gadget on its own, its income is supposed to replace the falling income of the iPod line. There are many purported features of the iWatch ranging from unlocking your phone, to beeping if you leave your connected iDevice behind when you leave the house. While a very interesting addition to the Apple product line, I am wondering if, apart from dedicated fans, anyone will actually buy this.

... the technology giants are attempting to claim this new area of the market

What Apple can do, Samsung can do, according to android lovers, better. Samsung also apparently will be releasing a smartwatch, the Altius. Rumours of this productare scarce and it is hard to find any concrete facts on what this gadget will do. Not even the OS is assured, as Samsung could opt for Android or even a self created OS. However rumours quote that its functions are said to be quite similar to that of the iWatch.

However these are not the only wearable gadgets on offer. The Pebble smartwatch started the whole watch thing, while EyeTap is apparently very similar to Google’s Project Glass. This makes the prediction that this future market space willbe fought over quite fiercely and that there will be quite a lot of competition for each company seem very credible.

However what does the consumer want to see from this area of tech? An ease of use and actually forgetting that you are using any technology is the central idea behind these kind of gadgets. Thus each new device must be useful and have a clearly defined purpose that our gadgets today cannot fulfil. Thus, while I think the idea of the smartwatch is quite cool, the “smartglasses” just seem so much more useful. The watches will just be introducing another screen that I will have to look at, while the glasses will remove them, and actually use your surroundings as their screen. However, you never know technology is a fickle field. The cool ideas may never work, and the pointless ones may actually flourish.