We have seen a major transition over the last decade from desktop to mobile devices. With the major technology companies releasing wearable devices many app designers and developers are busy thinking about how to utilise this new technology. Here are the reasons why we can expect it to be huge in 10 years time and become the primary way that we interact with our apps. You may have found an old phone that you considered to be state of the art 10 years ago, and realised how ancient and lacking it looks now. The evolution of wearable devices will mean that in 10 years time you can expect that same feeling when you look at your current smartphone in 10 years time.
1. Convenience
With a watch or wearable glasses type of device there will be no need to find your phone or tablet, whether that be from your pocket or bag. Access to information will be at a glance, saving seconds and effort. This will be particularly useful in workplace environments or whilst concentrating on another task. Also, it should mean that wearable devices will be harder for criminals to physically steal – at least by means of stealth anyway.
2. The devices may be able to charge themselves
Kinetic based watches have been around for a while and we can expect wearable technology to also implement movement based charging technologies or sustainable ones like solar power. If the device doesn’t need to be charged electrically it will become more useful for example on long trips without access to electricity.
3. The apps will get much better and much more useful
With mobile technology came a new generation of applications that were based upon mobile specific features like location awareness, movement sensors and touchscreen interaction. With wearable apps we can expect features much more suited to them like eye movement based interaction. Developers will come up with new ideas specifically for wearable devices, not just porting existing desktop or mobile apps.
4. They will become much cheaper
Google glass is currently prohibitively expensive for most people to seriously consider and we can expect the same for the first generations of smart watches. As they become popularised by major technology companies like Apple, and their associated marketing efforts, we can expect much cheaper models to appear. This will take time of course but mass production and huge demand will mean that we can expect prices to drop to levels attractive to the average current consumers of smartphones.
5. The technology will improve
As new iterations are released the hardware specifications will drastically improve, allowing the devices to become more powerful and functional. Currently the small size of a wearable device like a watch coupled with the limitations of touch screen or voice controlled technology challenges us to consider them as anything much other than output devices, which may not have the functionality to replace our current phones. However in the future we can expect new ways to interact with them to emerge making them much more useful as input devices.
6. Telecommunications infrastructure will improve
4g is just starting to become more widely available although there is a long way to go, especially in more rural locations, and we can expect high speed Internet connectivity to be a standard feature of wearable devices. As the network infrastructure improves these devices will increasingly offer apps that make the most of a reliable wireless high speed connection. Similarly we can expect rapid uptake of other location based technologies like Ibeacons and for the associated infrastructure to be put in to place. This will provide many new opportunities for app development.
7. Marketing and Promotion
Companies making wearable devices will move their marketing efforts and budgets away from mobile to wearable as the mobile sector become more mature and less profitable. This in turn will increase public awareness and improve public perception of these kind of devices which will increase their demand and popularity.
8. Fashion
The most well known wearable devices at the moment are probably watches and glasses, both of which many people wear on a daily basic anyway in the non ‘wearable device’ form. Research by Forbes indicates that a majority of people aged 16 to 24 want wearable technology, yet some people may still perceive wearable technology items to be geeky and unfashionable. Just as Rolex watches and expensive designer glasses are often considered to be a desirable status symbol or fashion item, in the future we can expect wearable devices to have these qualities too. And we can expect luxury fashion designers to start releasing their own wearable devices soon (if they haven’t already).
9. It will be almost invisible
The first generation of these kind of devices sometimes look more like prototypes, but we can expect them to get much smaller or at least blend in with the what the user would normally wear. There is a company in Cambridge, Massachusetts, which is developing a miniature computer that attaches to your skin like a plaster.
10. 3D displays
Future wearable devices could have 3D displays which produce holograms which could be experienced from many different viewpoints similar to viewing a real life object. There are bandwidth constraints involved with this at present but with large companies such as HP conducting research in this area we should expect these kind of displays to be incorporated in to wearable devices in the future making them very attractive to consumers.