AlbSoft

It seems every tech company is building a smartwatch, and startup Pebble already has, but it isn't quite clear whether they'll become as ubiquitous on consumers' wrists as those distinctive white iPod cords hanging from their ears a few years ago. Smartwatches have never been cool, despite several efforts to market them over the years. Can Apple change that? Can Microsoft? What will it take to sell consumers on wearable tech?
Apple is working on one, according to rumors that seemed to gel earlier this year. Samsung has taken the lid off its plans, though no specifics have been announced, and LG is rumored to be building one too. Kickstarter phenom Pebble began shipping its smartwatch several weeks ago, and on Monday rumors began circulating that Microsoft was also looking to produce a wearable timepiece that could do much more than just tell time.
Besides all the watches, there's a variety of headgear in the works -- most notably, Google's Glasses.
The ingredient missing from this building frenzy is market demand. Will consumers actually get on board and embrace such devices? So far, apart from very specific uses -- such as monitoring one's heart rate or other fitness indicators -- the general reaction to the smartwatch and other new personal gadgets has been "meh." Yet they are coming, and from the looks of things, that trickle may soon become a flood.
"Wearable tech is slowing entering the marketplace," said technology analyst Stephen A. Blum of Tellus Ventures Associates. "That's one of the potential benefits of the flex screen Samsung demoed at CES -- it can put a larger but less intrusive screen on your wrist. Google Glass and other head-mounted displays and cameras can do the same thing if it's attractive enough to wear."
However, many of these attempts appear just as uncool as those 1980s-era calculator watches.
"Smart watches are still a solution that is looking for a problem," said Roger Entner, principal analyst for Recon Analytics. "The form factor does not easily lend itself to provide a user experience that delights."
Issues such as small screen size, battery size and weight are much more pronounced in a watch-size form factor, said Entner.
"Right now this smart watch craze is just a reaction to Apple submitting a patent and everyone else running after Apple's next great idea," Entner told TechNewsWorld.