I'm glad you asked, and I'll tell you.
As "cool" as wearables are, it's not unreasonable to see a counter-culture against them and devices in general. We already use a lot of digital products and we may not hate it now, but at some point it may be too much. It may push us to rethink why we use these things in the first place. Are our lives really any better with this latest product? This doesn't even factor in privacy concerns and it's growing. People are more concerned than ever about what they share and how companies use (and sell) their information. Simply put, it'll become creepy. There's too much of your information being tracked and putting a bracelet on that is clearly owned by a big company would look (and probably feel) like subjugation. And tracking non-essential data isn't a good enough reason to wear one.
And in those parameters, other than niche products for the fit and the wild, hardly anything will survive. The apple watch? It may be bought by quite a few people, but it certainly won't be "hip". People will have a very tough time explaining their purchase to others, a terrible sign for any product, and it will be the quickest fad yet. Mark my words and hold them against me if I'm wrong. But until someone makes something worth wearing, something so inconspicuous yet vital to our everyday lives, nothing will be universally adopted. Why? Because it's not worth it.
Now I know I have yet to give you a complete answer, but there's one more thing I'd like to discuss before I do.
Your phone is becoming more and more the most important piece of equipment you have. Give it time, and unless you are doing high-end computation, it will become the only device you'll need and everything else will be shells of themselves with a dock for your phone and a battery inside. And because it's so important, losing it or damaging it when doing trivial things will not only become annoying but will make you question if it's important enough to take with you. And of course it is, it's your phone. It's your point of contact, your point of reference. It's too useful for any given situation, be it leisurely or emergency.
So I've set up two scenarios here. One is wearables doing nothing a phone can't do or doing something only a niche would use. And the other is needing to take your phone everywhere. The obvious solutions are making a wearable that doesn't do what your phone does and will never do, and making an indestructible phone. I have yet to see anything wearable that a phone could never do other than in niche categories, and have yet to see an indestructible phone that is as sleek and has the same functionality as a smartphone.
Companies have decide to focus on health. That's where the money is. What they haven't considered though, is that unless they dive into the depth of the field, from blood levels to air quality, the general population will not care. Don't get me wrong. The health industry is a huge market, raking in billions of dollars each year. What I am saying is that simply tracking someone's heart rate or steps isn't going to become the next iPod. But if you did dive into the depth and made a wearable that tracked truly meaningful data, even providing daily blood tests, and it could be kept private even from the inventor (with an option to share), that would certainly be a solution. Actually, that would be incredible. Could you imagine a world where everyone monitored their health in real-time? Not just superficial data, but consequential data? The implications would be huge. Even if people didn't share their information, with a bit of education it would save millions if not billions of lives. I would buy that. I would buy two, so I never had to take the damn thing off. But sadly, that's not what companies are doing today. The most I've seen is glucose monitoring systems for diabetics.
On the other side of the spectrum is the indestructible phone and no company in their right mind would make one. First of all, it'll be expensive to make, secondly it'll be unwieldy, and even if they get it right and it's a beautiful piece of human engineering, no one will buy another phone unless it becomes utterly obsolete. So the best we're ever going to get is a case that provides the protection, none of which are perfect and most are unsightly or mess with functionality. So what I propose as a solution to this dilemma and to the hotly anticipated and already crowded wearable market and the technological field as a whole is .... a phone. Yes, a phone but hear me out.
This phone would be a companion to your main phone, but could work completely independent of it. It can pretty much do what your phone can, but worse. Put it in a tiny (
something like THIS) form factor that's water-proof, floats, and can take a beating and you've got a device that people would use all the time. Just like how the tablet sounded stupid until you used one, this little phone will make you hate how much you love it. It'll be a pain to use any web interface including social media, but it will make calls and take pictures and video just fine. You can load it up with music or stream it. You can message your friends, but better make it short as you'll have trouble reading what you're typing...better yet, just call them. And pulling up directions is no problem and neither is exchanging info as NFC is a long press away.
Now there are some flaws with the idea, mainly is it even possible to have two phones under the same number? But other than that, the companion phone would alleviate a problem you didn't think existed. Best of all, this idea won't take advantage of a problem until phones really do become so powerful they replace laptops for the average consumer; when your phone ceases to become a phone and instead becomes your mobile processor; the linchpin of your productivity.
Just to be clear, I'm not proposing a "dumbphone". As much as I love those phones, this is not it. They do not sync with your smartphone and therefore ruin the whole point. This companion is what you take out when you need your phone but don't want to risk taking your main phone out. And you will think of the risk when you continue to use your main phone for more and more important tasks. So next time you're about to head out for a hike or out to a party, don't take your phone, take this shitty, little piece of awesomeness instead and stay connected.
You may think this idea is absurd but companies are banking on people buying modern day pagers.
Topic: The Windows/microsoft thread of not knowing how to count. (Read 28882 times)
