In the early 2000’s the main focus
of new technology was to make everything smaller, with the biggest focus going
to cellphones. I remember back in middle school that a few friends of mine had these
bizarre phones that were roughly the size of a tube of lipstick (as can be seen
in the picture below), with screens so small that they could only display a few
lines of text. I thought they were the coolest, but my parents never let me get
one. I ended up with a basic Samsung flip phone which I thoroughly enjoyed as I
had never owned a phone before and it was uncharted territory for me. But as
time has progressed, the way we interact with technology has clearly changed.
We now watch videos, listen to music, and surf the web on our smart phones
which is something that would be impossible for these older small types of
phones. So why then are companies trying to force smartwatches to us consumers
as the next big thing? Is it for convenience, fashion or purely profit?
Well first off, let’s not pretend
that companies like Apple wouldn't do their absolute best to sell products to
us that we don’t need for ridiculous prices. Case and point, iPads. Come April
of this year, they will be at it again with the release of their own smartwatch.
However, people have been quite slow to jump onto the smartwatch bandwagon as
only 720,000 of them were sold in 2014. One of the reasons for these slow sales
can be attributed to price. The Apple watch alone is estimated to start at $350
for the base model and it will have a model that will cost upwards of $10,000
made of 18-karat gold. But the main problem I see here is that this watch
requires an iPhone to pair with for full functionality. 
If smartwatches do catch on with
this ‘design flaw’, they will simply be for those who want the convenience of
not having to take their phones out of their pockets to read a text. One
legitimate feature that I can think of for these watches would be their fitness
tracking capabilities. Any other type of watered down app would just look ‘gimmicky’
and would never replace what my smartphone could do in my mind. Given that the
media we surround ourselves with today mainly requires large high definition screens
and speakers I feel like these watches are just an aide to our phones. Most people
aren't going to spend $700 on an unlocked iPhone in addition to an extra $350
minimum for a watch. That’s pushing it. If smart watches are to really catch
on, I would love to see the main selling point being that they are standalone phones
and not ridiculously bulky. However, as stated before, given that our media is
quite demanding, this would have to be one revolutionary product with a
holographic 3D display perhaps? Only time will tell.
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