Vox Pop: The Apple Watch and The Future of Wearables (Part 3)

Steve Swann, Creative Director, Mando Group

I don't believe that wearable technology has a future unless it evolves to seamlessly overlay with the physical/real world with the preferences and data the device has on you. I guess I'm talking about a "wearable augmented reality" or perhaps even an immersive technology.

At the moment I feel there is too much disconnect between the virtual and the real. This means that if your attention is focused on the virtual, you are not paying attention to the physical and vice versa. When I talk about a wearable augmented reality, I'm not talking about a clever way to have virtual and physical worlds discretely visible in the same field of view. I'm talking about a technology that merges the two and allows synergies to make the whole greater than the sum of the parts.

So I envisage a world where wearable technology is not seen as a potential contributor to accidents, but rather as a means to reduce accidents. A world where wearing the technology will reduce your insurance premium or perhaps a world in which it becomes illegal to drive without augmented reality. A world where your wearable device consumes our day to day routine and proposes a better way of going about your day to make it more productive. At the moment I don't see wearable technology as any great radical innovation set to change the world, more a set of incremental innovations designed to guarantee revenue streams.

Luke Thomson, Designer, JKR

When the iPhone came out, everyone recognised that it was a better, more useful phone. But its true potential – in apps and better hardware – wasn't realised until a few generations later. The idea for Instagram (for example) seems obvious in hindsight, but it's only possible because you've got a tiny computer with a camera and the internet in your pocket at all times.

The Watch is going to be the same. To start with it's basically a nice watch that tells you more than just the time, tracks activity, and has some interesting communication features. Having the extra info on your wrist is actually really good. But someday you won't need your phone with you at all, and maybe the Watch could unlock your front door as you approach it, or pay for lunch, or analyse your health.

Apple had the charisma to make us all carry a computer in our pockets. If they can convince us to wear one on our wrists too, the possibilities are huge.

Lily Bowden, Group Account Manager, The Future Factory

I am wholeheartedly adverse to 'wearables'. As a society, we're already so distracted by our smartphones that adding to the chaos with watches, activity trackers, glasses and 'Twitter dresses' just seems absurd. It leads to even more navel-gazing – facilitated by the dreaded 'text neck' that we're apparently all experiencing.

As with all Apple products, the Apple Watch is just another ploy for us to part with our hard-earned cash, only to bemoan the thing’s poor user experience and constant, needy updates. It’s a smaller, fiddlier version of the iPhone, with no additional features except the ability to monitor our consumption of food and drink. Up until this point I’ve monitored the consumption of food and drink with my eyes, that I didn’t have to pay £500+ for, so I think I’ll be giving the Apple Watch a miss.

Euan Plater, Head of Wearable Technology, CULT Ldn

The concept that wearable tech is a passing fad is inherently illogical – especially considering the fact that the technology, and more recently fashion, sector has followed a pretty rigid model over the last few decades.

Technology as both an industry and cultural zeitgeist has progressed in an entirely predictable fashion. A concept is born, brands clamber to be the first to market, one brand champions the sector despite mass speculation, and finally the concept receives global consumer buy in. This was seen with boom of handheld technology: originally clumpy and unpractical - mobile phones are now unquestionably a feature of everyday life. The question is, why would wearable tech be any different?

Of course, first generation technology isn’t perfect. Of course there’s scope for improvement, but why do people tell themselves they don’t want the newest piece of tech, when everything that’s happened previous to now suggests they will?

Matt Jones, CEO, s3 Advertising

You have 1 New Stalker...

Not quite the notification you’d like to receive yet did you know your fitness tracker, smart watch and slightly strange looking glasses make it easy for almost anyone to identify and locate you and your device? This means the real world and the digital one have finally aligned, making wearable technology the new must-have advertising platform.

In this instance is stalking really that evil? Perfectly targeted adverts and educating those who at present are unware seems like a great idea to me.

Dave Evans, Head of Digital, Chapter

The ubiquitous nature of the Web has been a factor in our daily lives for many years now, with smartphones and other mobile devices ensuring we’re only ever a finger swipe away from our email or the Internet. Their rapid adoption points to one fact, which is that connected devices are only ever going to feature more and more in our lives, and their inevitable evolution is guaranteed to include some form of wearable device to boot (pun intended).

In the battle for market share there will be three key factors that will determine the winning devices from the losing ones: Their aesthetic design, the design of their user interfaces, and the usefulness of the apps or functionality that they offer. Good wearables will get two out of these three things right. Truly great wearables will succeed in delivering all three and become the devices that hold the same level of reverence as the mobile technology we currently struggle to live without