Wearable technology is not just the latest fashion statement; it is becoming one of the biggest tech trends of the decade. From sports bracelets that can access Facebook and monitor your pulse while you are running, to wearable computers like Google Glass, the trend is growing fast.
It makes sense. We human beings are active creatures. We walk and run and play sports. We go to museums and hockey games and restaurants. At the same time we have a love affair with our computers -- whether it is emailing, Googling, instant messaging or Tweeting, we don't like to be too far away from them.
So when cell phones began to offer email and internet capabilities, they became our de facto mobile computers. So much so that the average person checks their mobile phone about 110 times per day!
It was only a matter of time before mobile technology became part of your wardrobe. Google Glass offers streaming data onto your eyeglasses via a mounted display box, accessible at the flick of a glance. (They are even talking about contact lenses that can monitor your blood sugar!)
Smart watches use Bluetooth to link to your phone, allowing you to Facebook and email while tracking your fitness levels on your wrist.
Wearable technology gives you instant gratification while offering retailers, information providers and other companies the ability to personalize your every experience. And personalization is the future of mobility. Thanks to GPS, your mobile device knows where you are at any given time. Mobile applications give you a wide range of choices that can help you to map out a route, read a newspaper, shop online or play a game. Combining the capabilities of mobile apps with personalized services and intelligent business process management means that service providers can have a new level of business agility; able to proactively respond to customer needs, changing markets, competitors and regulations.
Technology means service providers can filter the world for you -- and you only.
For example, imagine you are at a hockey game watching your favorite team play. A player scores and you wonder how many goals he has had this season. You pick up your smartphone to Google the answer.
Behind you is the VIP box, where the lucky guests are sipping cocktails and wearing unusual-looking glasses. One of them yells out that your player has had 11 goals this season. How did he know that so quickly? This is the capability of personalized mobility using Google Glass.
In fact, the Washington Capitals hockey team will soon be launching Skybox Google Glass for their home games, a service for VIPs that will offer hockey stats and graphics and replays.
Sports are only one area where personalized mobility is useful. Medicine is also embracing it. New Jersey cardiologist Jordan Safirstein video-streams surgical operations using Google Glass to his students who can view it live on their smartphones or tablets. His cardiac fellows can learn about tricky situations as he encounters them in surgery.
There is more to wearable computing than meets the eye. All of the data that streams out of wearable technology -- and into the Internet of Things -- is of use to service providers in making your customer experience even more personalized.
Various reports indicate that more than 2 billion mobile devices will ship globally in 2014 and, as this market continues to grow exponentially, application developers need an efficient way to create dynamic apps. It will be important for developers to build single, cross-platform apps, plus test and manage them from a single platform. Equally importantly, they will want to build a single version of a native, mobile application that can be used across any iOS, Android, BlackBerry and Windows Mobile device.
Wearable technology, and in particular computing, is the future. Living in a filtered world, driven by personal preferences and based on our GPS coordinates, will give all of us more of what we want -- and only what we want and when we want it.