No, consumers are not, in fact, 'warming to the idea' of something they have no need for. The author, like most of the tech industry, is still mistaking hype for invention. Anything a smartwatch can do, my smartphone can do, with a screen that can hold more than four letters, and taking it from my pocket takes all of 200 milliseconds more than turning my wrist. Neither do I need a smart refrigerator, smart toaster, or smart coffee mug. The 'next big thing' has to solve a real problem. My prediction is collapsible displays, and possibly improved e-ink (low battery, fast refresh, colour). I have a smartphone, a kindle, and a 10" tablet. I want a single device that fits in my pocket, and expands to 10". Ideally it also doesn't hurt my eyes for long periods of reading; but most people don't read books, so that's not essential. I don't care how it does it—foldable, rollable, projection, smoke and mirrors—take your pick. Ironically, once we have collapsible displays, we can put them in watches for smartphone/tablet size displays on your wrist. If it expands fast enough, smartwatches will actually solve a problem (+200ms read time) without absurd sacrifices, and may actually take off. But unifying smartphones, tablets, and e-readers—that's the next big thing. I called it.no one has figured out a magic formula yet for wearables that strikes the right balance of form, function and convenience
consumers are still warming to the idea of wearable technology
I have a Kindle DX. It's the best reading experience I have. If they made a DX touch it would be the be-all, end-all. But they'll never make a DX again, and Amazon would love to phase out all but the Fires. Because they can sell you more shit on a color LCD that plays movies than they ever will on a reflective display. The conversation has long since turned from "what do you need" to "what can we sell you" because if you aren't growing, you're a failure and your shareholders will revolt. The fact that Apple is now rolling out Adblock is proof positive that what consumers really want is less intrusiveness, not more. I have yet to see compelling evidence that collapsible displays will come to fruition without major innovation. OLEDs are wretchedly hydrophilic and we have no good hard, flexible, clear materials that lend themselves to the abuses that rolling or folding entail. If I had to guess, I'd guess that the next big push will be into UIs that take up less space. I predict a lot of failure.
The kindle reader really pushed display tech in the right direction but the momentum sort of faded. Like you I don't really care for more backlit displays but I love the normal kindle display. I wish it could do color and load webpages normally, I would buy it in a heart beat, especially if it still only refreshed at 1hz so it would have to kill all the stupid annoying moving, blinking flashing shit your see on websites.
I figured it out more than 561 days ago. It's a phone, but you wear it on your wrist. The screen is smaller than your phone's, but much bigger than your watch's. It does all that fitness stuff too. I can leave my phone at home. I can plug my headphones into it. I can do text and email. It has GPS. My phone is at home.
Yeah, this actually demonstrates exactly why I don't use my iPhone as a steps tracker and much prefer the fitbit. I have the 6+ iPhone and it's simply too big for there to be an expectation that I'm going to carry it everywhere I go and therefore have it reliably track all my steps. The fitbit is perfect because I can put it on and forget it and not look like a giant douche while I'm at it, either.
Advantages of being male: I have pretty much that exact ridiculous pouch and I put it on my bicep. Nary a problem, except when MapMyRun decides that those 4 miles were actually zero because herp derp forgot to turn on the GPS. There has to be a fitness tracker that doesn't puke once a week, I just haven't found it yet.
http://www.amazon.com/Armband-screen-Multi-use-forearm-armband/dp/B00KC64JRM If you want weird looks and social contempt, you could just go with a pink mohawk. Or Google Glass.
Apropos of nothing, I was once commissioned by a magnet manufacturer to design a dress made of magnets for the PPAI fashion show. PPAI is where manufacturers show their "promotional products" - like pens and mousepads and shit that you can print your company name imprinted on - and they have a "fashion show" to show off wearable products. (Hats, t-shirts, safety vests, etc.) The magnet manufacturer wanted to stand out, so they talked to me about making a dress out of magnets, so their products could be featured in the fashion show. I ballparked the design and building of the dress at around $1500, and they balked at that. I did designs, renderings, drawings, etc, and the dress even transformed... the length could be changed by peeling off the lower skirts (since they were magnetic), the collar could be changed, etc. It would have been a news story EVERYWHERE - not just at the convention - but they were too short-sighted to see the potential and canned the project. Too bad. I would have liked to have seen that dress...
Yeah, I'm with you on this. On my left arm and on my "under-wrist." It just makes sense. I could even type pretty quickly with my right hand. It's ergonomic. Try it now, pretend type on your under-wrist with your right hand. Seems natural, doesn't it? (Left handed people swap out right for left and vice versa)
So basically, you want a flip tablet with a phone screen on the outside to use when it's flipped shut. It could even have like a minimalist case around it so it didn't look like stupid. So it looks like one solid thing. Edit, also it opening like a book would appeal to the crowd that hasn't dived into e-books yet because they like that book feel.
That's one possible solution. But the screen would have to be seamless. Not two 7" screens with a fat bezel between. It has to be a phone-size device that becomes a single, seamless 10" display. Also, the 'folded' device can't be thicker than current smartphones, so about 10mm max.
I think many people would trade thiness for more battery life. I'm amazed that a thicker phone with 50% longer up time isn't a part of anyone's line up. Maybe I just know too many nerds that aren't fashion forward and this has been extensively market surveyed. If the nerds would sacrifice thickness for one type of functionality they might sacrifice it for another. All the same,I have a hard time imagining a screen with a seem that would be pleasant to use.