Tech revolution to inch into what we wear; Three categories of device will become prevalent, says Intel chief

July 17, 2013 7:46 pm

Tech revolution to inch into what we wear

By Richard Waters

Three categories of device will become prevalent, says Intel chief

The revolution will be wearable. Only, like most technology revolutions, it will not come as fast or in quite the form that the visionaries predict. That is the safe bet for what is quickly becoming Silicon Valley’s most hyped new claim: that “smart” devices like watches and glasses represent that next front in personal computing. The plunging costs of hardware and the spread of wireless networks certainly point to a time when digital intelligence and connectivity will creep into many different personal items – not to mention the broader world of inanimate objects, creating a much-predicted “internet of things”. More difficult to anticipate is exactly how this revolution will first be felt, though there are clues.Three different categories of device – for the ears, eyes and wrists, and each with its own set of uses – will soon become prevalent, predicts new Intel chief executive Brian Krzanich. What the killer apps of these will be, however, is still anyone’s guess.

So far, you can probably put the fact that wearables remain more a subject of discussion than practical experimentation down to teething troubles. As reported in the FT earlier this week, Apple ’s hotly anticipated iWatch probably won’t appear until late next year at the earliest. With other personal tech companies racing to come up with something similar, other smart watches look certain to appear sooner – though until Apple passes its aesthetic judgment, the personal tech world will continue to hold its breath.

Meanwhile, that other standard-bearer of the wearables revolution, Google’s Glass, has been facing some headwinds of its own. US congressional leaders voiced their concerns recently about the privacy-infringing implications of a face-mounted device capable of constantly monitoring and recording everything in front of the wearer. And earlier this week came news that a software flaw, now corrected, would have allowed malicious hackers to take control of devices.

Technological capabilities are not the main limiting factor here. The crucial question, as always, is whether the benefits of using a new technology exceed the resistance to adopting it – from getting comfortable with the new interfaces and hardware to developing the cultural and social norms the technology demands.

There are two very different visions for how wearable computing will break into the mainstream.

One holds that it will seep into everyday life, through gadgets that perform a single function but remain largely invisible. Wristbands made by Nike and Jawbone are the forerunners of these smart devices, measuring and reporting back to apps to track and analyse aspects of the wearers’ fitness and health.

The other vision involves a full-frontal assault on general-purpose personal computing. In this version of events, a watch or pair of glasses will subsume many of the killer apps of the smartphone, starting with things like making phone calls, checking text messages or taking pictures, before eventually making today’s favourite gadgets redundant. By opening these devices up as platforms for third party developers, their makers hope to increase the odds that they’ll come up with things to make the gadgets indispensable.

Of the two, the history of personal technology points to the former as the more likely. General-purpose computing platforms, from the PC to the internet, take years to tame. For anything that has to be integrated into personal life so completely, the key watchword will be seamlessness. Things that make life simpler are likely to lead the way – especially if their hardware remains invisible and their functions automatic.

Ironically, one of the first killer apps for such gadgets is likely to involve civilising the smartphone itself. Today’s handsets have imposed a tyranny on personal life, crashing into conversations and turning city pavements into parades of the distracted. The first smartwatches seek to mediate this smartphone-dominated world, for instance by signalling text alerts in a less intrusive way.

Wearable computing’s truly revolutionary moment is only likely to come after enough of these seamless gadgets have found their way into the world, creating a constellation that itself becomes a new computing platform.

Smartphones were marginal for years until Steve Jobs bullied, cajoled and inspired his colleagues at Apple to create the iPhone. Investors who have built their hopes on a similar breakthrough moment for the iWatch could be in for a disappointment.

Richard Waters is the Financial Times’ West Coast managing editor