Wearables, The Next Big Thing

The wearable industry is currently a tremendously exciting melting pot of creative exploration, rapid innovation and exploding talent. It’s in an early stage of becoming the famed ‘Next Big Thing’ and although nearly everybody agrees that it will play a huge part in our future lives, nobody is quite sure exactly how.

With that being the main challenge, it’s up to all of us to define what a ‘wearable’ actually is. Broadly speaking, it’s a device that one can wear on their body and generally falls into the ‘tech’ category.

A wearable is a device that one can wear on their body and generally falls into the ‘tech’ category

They may or may not be connected to the web, they may or may not collect data, track your fitness activity or other vital signals. It may be a watch, a pair of glasses, a pair of shoes or a coat, pendant or something different still.

Smartwatches and Fitness Trackers

Smartwatches are currently dominating the wearable market, but are by no means mainstream. They are popular among early adopters, but they have not replaced smartphones, laptops or, in fact, any other piece of technology we use on a daily basis. They are still evolving, with new user interfaces, use cases and hardware coming to the market every year.

Smart watches are still evolving, with new user interfaces, use cases and hardware coming to the market every year

Fitness trackers, on the other hand, have now become a standard, at least among some populations. They are an excellent example of how a focused, well-defined wearable device can improve life, giving access to the relevant information at the relevant time to aid decision making. In this case, people are using it to improve their own fitness and health.

Fitness trackers an excellent example of how a focused, well defined wearable device can improve life, giving access to the relevant information at the relevant time to aid decision making

Internet of Things

Wearables are also often closely connected to the Internet of Things. They are a link between us and our environment that has never been there before, powered by the computing capabilities of the cloud and AI. The potential is there and the technology available, but not yet realised — it is up to us to take advantage of these tremendous opportunities.

The potential of Internet of things and wearables is amazing, it is up to us to take advantage of these tremendous opportunities

Smart glasses may not have won the heart of humans just yet, but I’m confident that there will be future attempts and we will eventually figure out the right way to bring the benefits they offer to our constantly changing world.

Smart homes, on the other hand, are becoming increasingly popular — it’s like bringing to life childhood fantasies about being able to use the Force to turn off lights from bed. People are embracing it and wearables can help with smart home control.

There is so much we can create, explore and play with… Wearables are a beautiful field in its infancy where you have the power to shape it for future generations

I want to encourage you to leap into the wearable field with your mind open and creative — there is so much we can create, explore and play with… It’s a beautiful field in its infancy where you have the power to shape it for future generations. Don’t miss out on it!

You can watch all the videos with Aga Madurska on our Youtube. You can also listen to our interview with Aga in Exoflux podcast, the podcast of digital pioneers.

This post was written by Aga Madurska. She is a Tech Lead/Manager for the Wear OS Release Team in London at Google. She holds a first-class Master’s degree with distinction from Imperial College London and is also a Course Director for Mobile Training for Professional Development at Imperial College London. She is passionate about outreach and education, engaging in speaking opportunities, such as DroidCon London, Google I/O, Google DevBytes and Grace Hopper Celebrations. Originally from Warsaw, she moved to London in 2008 to study. Before Wear OS she worked on Google Maps for Mobile and Google Arts and Culture.