[jonnathanson]

If smartwatches are ever going to be a thing, they're going to have to not look like watches. Who wants a clunky, dorky looking watch like the Samsung version? Maybe a few of us geeks in the Valley, but certainly not mainstream and appearance-conscious consumers. I imagine I'd have had my ass kicked if I wore something like that to high school.

(Nike got it right with the Fuel Band: if you're going to put something on your body, it becomes as much a fashion accessory as a gadget. Design counts.)

Furthermore, the watch is going to have to do something that smartphones can't. It needs to go above and beyond, taking full advantage of whatever areas wearables can take advantage of. Google Glass I get. The possibilities there are fantastic (if the design leaves a bit to be desired). But a watch? It had better do more than just display the weather and run awkward, one-handed variations of Android apps on a smaller screen.

I'm not convinced there is a market for a smartwatch, such as it is. But if there ever will be, it'll be something entirely different from what we've been seeing so far. The technology exists to make thin, translucent, bendable screens -- so in theory, you could have a smart "bracelet" that is entirely a screen. That's somewhat more interesting, at least design wise. But we still need real-world functionality that a smartphone can't replicate.

So far, most of these smartwatch specs remind me of the Segway: a very minimal improvement in quality of life at a tremendous cost in personal appearance. That math rarely works out well for consumer products.

[mynameisvlad]

> Maybe a few of us geeks in the Valley, but certainly not mainstream and appearance-conscious consumers. I imagine I'd have had my ass kicked if I wore something like that to high school.

I get your point, but using high school as an example is detracting from it. We're not in high school anymore, nobody is going to get their asses kicked for wearing something. I'm sure if the most popular guy in high school showed up with the Samsung watch, he wouldn't get his ass kicked, either.

[jonnathanson]

I think high school is a perfect example, actually. High schoolers are highly influential in popular culture, and many trends bubble up from there. "Getting my ass kicked" wasn't meant to be taken literally; it was more of a rhetorical device. But my point was that, for a device to be widely accepted, it has to be appealing as an accessory. People in high school are extremely image conscious. So are most people outside of high school, for that matter.

"We're not in high school anymore..."

You and I aren't, but millions of people are -- whether literally or metaphorically.

[Shivetya]

Mainstream people don't seem to have much of an issue walking around with a hearing aid, I mean blue tooth device on their heads.

As for the watch, make it work like science fiction where you can raise your wrist and talk and I bet a lot would join in. I would not mind having a wrist device, even if it only queried my phone in my pocket, which I give simple voice commands. Bonus points to being a real phone.

"How soon before it rains" "Call boss" "Time to next bus"