The Rise of Wearable Technology

As a major tech buff, there are few trends that excite me as much as the wearable tech trend that has gripped the market over the past year or so. How might this trend play out and what could it mean for the future of smart devices?

A few years ago, I’m sure you were all like me, Oliver Rawlings readers. I was simply amazed at how quickly smartphone technology was moving, how it seemed to be diversifying every day. Suddenly you could bank with your phone, you could online date with it, you could even use it to get a (somewhat) accurate weather report.

What a difference a few years makes. Smartphones are only barely a decade old and suddenly we’re all talking about wearable tech. If you’re still stuck in the IPhone age, let me break it down for you.

Wearable tech is exactly that; smart technology that acts as a piece of clothing. Commonly we see it with the Google glass, a pair of glasses frames with ‘smart’ capabilities that you can wear as you would wear real glasses. We also see it with the new smart watches which perform similar functions.

So what are we dealing with here? Well, we’re really dealing with wearable smart technology. They perform the same functions as a smartphone and have the added advantage that they are more convenient, as they are on the body, as opposed to in your pocket.

But there are kinks still to work out. Namely, people aren’t out buying Google glass in droves yet, and experts are now partly putting this down to design. That’s why plans are currently underway to produce a version of the technology with Ray Ban.

So how might this trend play out? In the short term, it could go one of two ways and it depends entirely on the consumer. Wearable tech could remain the domain of tech buffs and millionaires. However, if it is marketed and delivered in the same way that smartphones were, wearable tech could become every bit as pervasive in society as the phone that changed communication forever.

In the long term, it’s clear that exactly this will happen. It’s actually something we see fairly often with technology; CD’s replaced cassettes, which were in turn replaced by downloads etc. It’s very much a natural progression.

It says something larger about the world in which we live. The tech age has blossomed, there’s no going back. Wearable tech is yet another sign that technology is our future.