Industry Expert Blogs

I have been in a friendly debate with my colleagues (to remain nameless) for some time now about the future of ‘wearable devices.’ The most recent examples are the new Google glasses and the latest incarnation of the smart watch. I’m not a fan of either. I am trying to keep an open mind, however, because my natural inclination is not to overtly wear electronics. I could never clip a cell phone to my belt, and I only wear a Bluetooth headset in the car or when I’m alone in my office.

My concern about these particular devices is that they feel forced on the consumer. I understand that products need to be test marketed, but I really don’t see the use case for either of these products that would cause widespread adoption by consumers. For example, not everyone wears glasses, and if you don’t count cool sunglasses, most of us don’t want to wear them. In the case of the smart watch, many people—young people in particular—already have given up wearing watches because they use their phone. Plus do we really want to worry about charging our phone, watch and glasses all the time? I already have too many charging cords!

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