Wearable computing isn’t new and its utility is not up to debate. Athletes are wearing them to monitor or even enhance performance. Patients are wearing them to monitor health vitals. The same goes for soldiers, astronauts, etc.
Then there are those people wearing those Bluetooth earpieces, Oakley Thumps, smart watches like the Pebble, wrist-mounted iPod nanos, and Google Glasses. There are (were?) even people wearing backpack computers with heads-up displays and on-hand keyboards
On an average day, by and large those people look nerdy at best, and dorky at worst. Certainly not fashionable. For wearable computing to go mainstream , the key obviously is for the devices to become fashionable. Either by changing shape and form. Or by changing the norms of fashion. This is what the more successful companies are doing.
Take watches, it’s not a debate that on an average day they are jewelry first, and timekeeping device second. And so “dumb watches” are arguably more successful than smart watches. Supposedly, they’re “dumbness” and “lack of innovation” is actually what’s helping them sell. I think it’s actually more because these dumb watches are fashionable.
