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What smart watch makers need to do next
Smart watch makers would like us to think their tiny wrist-based gadgets represent the next technology wave.
Maybe that will happen. For now smart watches are not ready for prime time. The current crop of smart watches is unlikely to break out from a geek niche.
Smart watches have to get past two barriers. First, they don't do anything useful enough to compensate for the cost and the physical real estate they take up.
Second tiny touch screens are not the way to go. A quick look at what has happened to smartphone screens shows that people want bigger, better displays.
It's possible Apple has something special, er, up its sleeve that will change this.
In the meantime, I think I know what could push smart watches or something similar into the mainstream: Voice recognition.
By this I mean something like Siri, only more so. Or if you prefer like a swept-up version of the speech commands used with Google Glass.
Instead of squinting at a tiny screen for information, a next generation wearable device can speak the information. Today's speech technology is good enough for this to sound almost natural.
Decent voice recognition means no more struggling with swipe gestures on a tiny display.
Now here's the rub. When the screen becomes less essential, the device doesn't have to sit on your wrist. It could become a badge — like the communicators Star Fleet officers use in the Star Trek TV shows. You could ask questions: What is the time of the next meeting, when does the next train arrive, what is the square root of 37?
Bill Bennett
New Zealand technology news
Bill Bennett publishes technology news and features that are directly relevant to New Zealand readers.
Covering enterprise and small business computing, start-ups, listed companies, the technology channel and devices. Bennett's main focus is on New Zealand innovation.
Bill Bennett stories are republished on Geekzone and Scoop.
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