

Think Bigger, Skeptics: Wearable Tech will Change the World - scald
http://blog.straphq.com/2014/07/21/think-bigger-skeptics-wearable-tech/

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formaldehyde
I think this blog post does a great job at putting the evolution of technology
into perspective. It's a reminder that when "now old" technologies, ones that
are fully integrated into our lives today, were first introduced everyone
didn't immediately accept them. Facebook is the perfect example as used in
this blog post. And microwaves, could we really imagine our lives without
them? I don't think so. But once we remember how reluctant society initially
was to accept these into our world, it shows hope for the future of wearables.
While reading this post I felt nostalgic as I remembered when Facebook came
out and how hesitant I was to create a profile that has so much personal
information on it. And today, I can't live without it. I truly believe in only
a few years everyone will associate such nostalgia with the evolution of
wearables. I don't understand why people think wearables are only for "geeks,"
as stated in the post. I see wearable technology as an extremely enhanced
version of smartphones. We didn't stop at the creation of the "flip-phone"
what makes people think we'll stop at smartphones. Wearables are what's next.

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VLM
He fundamentally goes off the road at the "don’t add life-changing value" and
"The device or combination of devices must be perceived as life-changing"
stage.

Observationally the people who like fitbits like grind games. Every MMORPG
experience I've had mirrors my fitbit experience along with everyone else I've
talked to (hard core EVE addicts have EVE spreadsheets and graphs, and spend
time analyzing fitbit graphs). Only a fraction of the population has addiction
susceptibility problems, enough to make money (see big tobacco) but not enough
to "take over the world".

The purpose of the medical system is to co-opt the legal system to help
maximize funneling money to certain groups. I'm not seeing self diagnosing
medical gear as helping, and they've been super efficient at using the legal
system to maximize revenue, so this entire class of ideas is dead, although it
just won't die in journalism.

"I would love to no longer need ... keys"

I've had electronic door locks on my house doors for many years, and both the
car and office door dongles in a pocket on the phone. Its not life changing
other than if I lose my phone I lose access to my house and office and car,
which would definitely suck. That's probably not the kind of life changing
he's looking for. The future is here, its just not evenly distributed.

(edited to add, the electronic door locks on my house are a basic utility to
me, like having a tankless water heater. Move somewhere without them and it
would be like, what is this, a log cabin? Yet I'm not going to seek them out,
I'm just going to expect them. This is a harder marketing job than pushing a
mere social fad.)

"I long for the ability to not have to charge something every single day"

Market research and past sales experience indicates he's nearly alone. You
want a phone that you charge every week, buy a feature phone. Nobody cares,
they buy fancy phones with 4 hour batteries to make them lighter. People like
to complain especially if its a way to show off how much money they spent.

"and to have a device that actually feels smarter than me"

Again some tiny fraction of the population loves paternalism, formerly best
implemented by Big Brother government. Carrying a prison warden around to
regulate me sounds horrific to me, and to most people. I'd rather live in a
HOA neighborhood where all they regulate is the color of my garden flowers.

He also runs off the rails with social interaction and "wearables". I have a
fitbit aria scale that tracks my weight. I have absolutely no interest in
giving "the internet" access to my weight and I'm just an average guy. My wife
is beyond horrified and didn't want it in the house until she was sure her
weight wouldn't show up on twitter/FB. I'm not seeing that behavior as likely
to drive social adoption. I like the graphs but hate the social aspect of
them. I imagine this is the likely outcome of hooking up the toilet flush
lever or the microwave oven or my wife's hair curling iron.

