Internet of Things and Data Analytics Handbook

15A DESIGNER’S GUIDE TO THE INTERNET OF WEARABLE THINGS

DAVID HINDMAN AND PETER BURNHAM

FJORD, San Francisco, CA, USA

15.1 INTRODUCTION

The wearable technology industry is germinating conceptually new formats at a lightning pace and in a million disparate directions at once. These new form factors and approaches to wearable technologies are unique expressions of an industry still finding its footing as it innovates toward a few common wearable formats. Think pre‐iPhone and pre‐Android, back to 2005 when dozens of different mobile phone form factors existed somewhat independently from each other. There was no agreed upon design framework that united the industry. Everything from Blackberries, to flip phones, to Sidekicks existed independently, and semiunique operating systems were baked into each manufacturer’s device lineup. Now, in 2015 we’ve more or less settled on a single form factor and a few operating systems that the success of the iPhone is responsible for solidifying across the industry.

As the Internet of wearable things matures, we can expect a similar increase in consistency to shape the market into a few known expressions. Currently, all signs point to the watch form factor coming out on top as the industry converges on this trend. Again, though relatively late to the game, the Apple Watch has cemented the watch form factor into the public’s perception of wearables as a category and into the technology market’s product lineups. However, even though the competition ...