wearables.net

Kickstarter: Pebble: E-Paper Watch for iPhone and Android

Pebble is a customizable watch. Download new watchfaces, use sports and fitness apps, get notifications from your phone….

Report: Wearable Devices: The Next Battleground For The Platform Wars

In a new Forrester report out today,  Key takeaways:

• Wearables are here, and more innovation is coming. We’ve all seen the movies: Gadget-laden heroes from James Bond to the Terminator to Iron Man have long relied on voice-controlled watches and heads-up display glasses to extend their powers. Now, those gadgets are a reality, albeit a niche one. Google co-founder Sergei Brin was recently spotted wearing a prototype from Google’s Project Glass. People you know may even be wearing sensor-laden wristbands like the Nike+Fuelband or sneakers like the Adidas adizero F50, which track your speed and workout stats. The military is prototyping dual-focus contact lenses with data displays, while university students experiment with clothing that reacts to our emotions. Nokia has filed a patent for a vibrating tattoo that could alert you when someone calls or texts you — the ultimate wearable.
   
• Wearables need backing from the big five platforms to succeed. Wearables without software are just geeky hardware. The big five software platforms — Apple, Google, Microsoft, Amazon, and Facebook – each have strengths to bring to wearables. Apple has the most polished marketing, channel, and brand. Google has an open platform and gives license to dabble. Microsoft has the best depth sensor yet. Amazon has information on more than 100 million products and their buyers. Facebook has a Rolodex — and facial recognition — for 800 million people. These platforms — and their developer communities — hold the key to the consumer connection and have the power to elevate wearables from geeky hardware to more mainstream uses.   
   
• Wearables will heighten the platform wars — and Google may actually win. Apple’s iOS ecosystem has already inspired a host of wearable accessories, like the Lark sleep sensor and now-discontinued Jawbone UP. But Google’s open Android platform will inspire broader experimentation for entire wearable solutions. Android is already the platform of choice for Foxconn-funded startup WIMM Labsas well as the Sony SmartWatch.

SF Fashion+Tech :Trend Spotlight: Wearable Tech with Erich Zainzinger (Part II)

Interview with  wearable technologist Erich Zainzinger. 

 I expect applications to come into the consumer market in 2013 and range from sports apparel to medical monitoring clothing.  

Sports apparel will most likely move fast into the consumer market as the ever growing number of smartphone usage makes it relatively simple via apps to link smart, sensing apparel to powerful computing devices for data collection and visualization of performance or wellness.