“Last week, I took a look at my tech predictions for 2013, and while I was spot-on-the-mark on some of them, I was way off on others,” Chris Ciaccia writes for TheStreet. “Since it’s that time of year again, I’ve compiled a list of what I think is most likely to happen in 2014 in the world of technology. With some of my predictions, I’m pretty confident, while others are a bit more out there.”
“Mobile will continue to be the key theme for 2014, as devices become more prevalent in our daily lives. Now that smartphones and tablets are essentially mainstream, the next product category is the health and fitness market, and wearable technology is where it’s at,” Ciaccia writes. “We’re becoming a more active society and are vastly more concerned about fitness than we were say 10 or 15 years ago. I suspect this trend is only likely to increase, as people do everything they can to lengthen their lives and live healthier.”
“Apple iWatch launch,” Ciaccia writes. “I’m pretty confident that this one will happen, perhaps as soon as March of this year. Apple CEO Timothy D. Cook has previously said Apple is moving into new product categories, and has hinted that the wrist is an interesting space for wearable technology. ‘The wrist is interesting,’ Apple’s CEO said during a tech conference earlier this year. ‘You still have to convince people it is worth wearing.””
Much more in the full article here.
The iWatch will have to come sooner or later. I think it’s an exciting product segment to be in.
What would be the applications that an iWatch could support? Fitness tracker for one. It’s an expanding market. Over time maybe smart locks integration. Yale Locks has an iPhone friendly lock where you can wave your iPhone over the lock to unlock the bolt. Imagine waving your wrist to unlock your door.
And iWatch in conjunction with iWallet where you can wave your wrist to pay at Starbucks. The possibilities are endless.
Yep, I see it useful in combination with other services like payments, home automation and of course, health. I be surprised if it didn’t measure pulse and blood sugar in addition to all of the usual stuff.
Ideally, it wouldn’t have much of a screen.
I thought the smart watch was the purported new and desirable tech device of 2013. Now we have to wait another year?
You know we wait and wait for Apple to finally release a newly designed or re-designed device or a brand new one but as soon as it is released, BOOM!, it becomes the new standard and widely adapted almost instantaneously like it was always with us. 2014 should be like that. Hard to believe it’s almost getting on 4 years since the iPad showed up and 7 years the iPhone. Mac Pro, where are you?
As long as it’s not a large screen watch.
Of course, if you are Gene Meunster, you believe that Apple will introduce a 90″ TV watch. Or something.
Analysts. I guess it’s the perfect job if you can’t get one as a barista at Starbucks…
I don’t know about the whole iWatch thing. With the advent of mobile phones, people stopped wearing watches. I found mine the other day – I haven’t worn it in some years. And you need a big wrist to support a big watch – that rules out most women, and a substantial number of men, including most Asian men. Ditto for people working with their hands.
I wonder if the whole iWatch thing was really a code for something to do with TV – and a lot of misdirection for Samsung and others.
Wearable displays might work when a small earpiece can project a 3D image into the air in front of you, and translate hand movements to allow interaction. Until then, notwithstanding Google Glass, its faddish and unlikely to become mainstream.
Apple are the experts at game-changing technology. If they are not in the market its because it doesn’t yet provide anything useful.
I’m only half joking here, but nobody on Star Trek TNG wears a watch, so there you go.
Also, unrelated, Micros**t is mentioned only in passing in the article. What does that tell you?
Apple’s master plan was based on realising all the tech portrayed in Star Trek. Now that you’ve blown the whistle, Samsung will be all over it. Now Apple is really doomed!
“Computer, what time is it?”
….
“Computer, locate my wife.”
….
Hmmm. I guess that what it tells me is that when computing REALLY becomes ubiquitous, that we’ll have something to talk about concerning Star Trek – or, perhaps, when Apple makes a little badge-like thing shaped like an arrowhead that we can wear on our shirt fronts. But something on my wrist just somehow seems less likely to go missing.