"Wearables" at a Tech Exposition in Taiwan: by Frances Garnett

In Taipei, the annual Spring Computer Fair will be taking place in a few days, finishing early next week, and this year there will be an emphasis on "wearables", or electronic devices you wear, such as smartwatches, wristbands, glasses, and even bicycle helmets with signal lights. Even though sales manager of iBiz Technology Corp (which distributes a brand of US smartwatch products in Taiwan), Jay Cheng, says that smartwatches can't replace tablets or smartphones because their screen is smaller in size, more and more companies are making these products, and it seems to be continuing into a sustainable trend, so companies will now need to have at least one smartwatch or other wearable to sell. Mika Enterprise Co Ltd, a Taiwanese video camera maker, will be presenting two different smartglasses at the exposition, and even though they may not carry as many apps as Google Glasses do, they still are able to let wearers pick up calls on Bluetooth and film movies. Jay Cheng also said that the companies are "targeting a niche market", since most people who want to by smartwatches or those who are either app developers or regular exercisers, and that “Wearables are like tools that are useful, but not necessarily required for daily living.”

I knew that smartglasses were being invented, but this is big news to see how technology is advancing in a new direction. I'm personally a bit critical of using too many electronics, as they can cause strain on your eyes after a long time, limit and are staring to be detrimental in social interactions, etc, etc, etc, but it's still interesting to see how far humans have come and where we can go next. I wonder if someday we will all be wearing smart glasses and they will be taken for granted, and when we look back a modern movies, we'll think that they were very old fashioned. I do agree with Mr. Cheng, though, that wearables still belong to a niche market because of the size of their screens, so I don't think phones or tablets will go out of fashion for a long time. Computers haven't, even though they're not as mobile, probably because they are viable in other ways that other devices aren't.

Source: http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/biz/archives/2014/04/15/2003588031