What is the future of wearables?

 

It is an obvious fact that w They are in the doldrums. Excess stock has meant that one of the largest in the sector, Fitbit, has had to stop manufacturing its solutions. Not to mention Pebble who ended up dying despite being a really good idea. 

On the other hand we have Android Wear, an operating system with very little news and a number of presentations really. Scarce And this is where the million dollar question comes in: Do wearables have a future? 

The only future passes through personal assistants 

Apple is the only company that is saved in this regard and it is simply because of the company's ecosystem and its legion of fans. Of course, saying that it is saved is a bit of an exaggeration since sales are being much lower than expected. It seems that the sector is doomed to failure and fewer and fewer manufacturers dare to continue betting on this type of device. 

Is it the end of the wearables market? These types of devices may have arrived too early, especially in the case of smartwatches whose very low autonomy, with few exceptions, make the purchase of a smartwatch more of a whim than a really useful tool.  

But there is still hope. The technology has yet to mature and the possibilities it will offer are really interesting. Where could the reef be? In smart assistants. 

While it is true that they have been slow to arrive, Crab laid the first stone five years ago. Google tried to get on the bandwagon with Google Now although the manufacturer has not achieved the expected result, being more a curiosity for simple commands than a really useful tool.  

But on the other hand the Internet giant surprised us with Google Assistant, a much more up-to-date assistant who is capable of recognizing the context and interpreting what we say much better. And we can not forget Alexa and Amazon Echo, the two Amazon services that surprise. Or Cortana, Microsoft's solution. 

Most industry experts predict that voice assistants will be the future and salvation of wearables And seeing how fast artificial intelligence is evolving, it seems like a very likely path for the future, offering voice interfaces that would change the way we interact with our mobile devices. 

That may seem crazy to you, but If 10 years ago they told you that we would have touch screen phones, you would possibly think the same. Returning to voice operating systems, our way of relating to technology would take a 360 degree turn.  

Imagine an ecosystem in which we do not have to be looking at the screen at all times, What use would a smartphone do for us? We could carry a wearable type device, be it a watch or a pendant for example, to which we would give voice commands to carry out different actions. 

Compact computing, the other option

 

In case that voice interfaces will not evolve beyond what we have seen so far, there would still be a second chance for wearables, although this would be really complicated: definitely replace a smartphone. 

We are talking about a device on the wrist could perform the functions of a mobile phone But different factors come in here that make it impossible in the short term. 

On the one hand we have the power of processors for wearables. While it is true that they are evolving at an incredible speed, they still have a long way to go to reach the power of any processor used in a smartphone or tablet. On the other hand we have autonomy. 

Today batteries for wearables are quite limited and any smart watch shows that they do not have enough capacity to last more than three days on. Luckily, the electric car market is pushing the sector forward at full throttle and, in a short time, we could have a device on our wrist that lasts a week on. 

There is another factor that we have not taken into account and it is very important: comfort. Right now it is much more comfortable to work with a smartphone than with a watch. The size of the screen makes a difference and seeing the evolution of smartphones, which are getting bigger and bigger, it is clear that a wearable replaces a phone. 

Mobile phones are evolving to become true computers. A few years ago it seemed crazy, but now we can connect a phone to our vehicle with, for example, Android Auto.  

Who says that in the future let's connect our wearable to any screen to have a fully autonomous and functional device to be able to work from anywhere in the world where there is a screen to connect our wearable. As you will see, the future is not yet written and there is hope for wearable devices. Voice interaction is in fashion and technology is growing rapidly.

That a mobile ends up becoming a personal computing center is more than obvious. The voice interaction gains more weight every day and the future points in this direction. Will our watches become personal assistants and will we stop using smartphones as we have used them until now? I don't know, but what is clear is that the only future for wearables is this.

We will see if they manage to update the technology in time to attract the public before wearables disappear due to the exhaustion of a public that is less and less interested in this type of device. The only ones who can reverse this situation are the manufacturers and for this you have to invest a lot of money. Fortunately giants like Microsoft, Apple and Google are very serious about the issue and I am sure that in less time than we think we will give a new twist to the way we see these types of devices today.

And what do you think? Do you really believe that the future of wearables really involves turning them into voice assistants?