How can Apple, or anyone for that matter, conquer the wearable market

Not for the mainstream

We will know in a few days if the rumors about the iWatch have any merit. I, for one, have been skeptical that a piece of technology can replace a fashionable accessory. Fashion is very personal, and I contend that it is not the utility of the object that attracts us as much as it is the status symbol, the indicator of success, or just the pure joy of wearing something we admire and like. Case in point Google glass. We have seen it getting shunned not only by the privacy police, but also by the fashion police. Comedian Joel McHale got a lot of laughs at this year's White House Correspondents' Dinner: "America still has amazing technological innovations. Google Glass has hit the markets. Now, just by walking down the street, we'll know exactly who to punch in the face." And if you have not already seen the Daily Show’s report “Glass half empty” by Jason Jones, you actually should

https://thedailyshow.cc.com/videos/w95a3v/glass-half-empty

Having said that I am positive that Google glass (as well as the new shoe that helps you take steps in the right direction,) will find very useful verticals to serve. However, it will face an uphill battle from the mainstream.

Unless it is considered really fashionable by the main stream

If you want your shoes to give you direction and still look sharp with your Armani suite, let Armani make your shoes, and have your high tech geeks make the GPS embedded in the heel. Not much different from what Mel Brooks envisioned in Get Smart circa 1965.

Now back to the iWatch. You want to replace my hard-earned Panerai or Audemars Piguet watch? Have your tech teams create what replaces mechanical and quartz mechanisms and leave the rest of the watch to the artists.

Like anything, designer watches come in a known variety of bezel sizes, case diameters, case thickness and shapes. Their inner guts comes in a set of standard calibers. All what a company like Apple has to do is to design the guts of the watch and sell it to the watch makers. This may not be difficult, given that most of the expensive Swiss watch companies are actually owned by the people who make the cheapest watch of all-- Swatch.

I know that millennials might not care to wear a watch to begin with. However I for one would not mind a nice watch that looks and behaves like an expensive fashionable Swiss watch that can turn its beautiful looking Cartier designed dial into a bright Apple touch screen, as long as it can switch back quickly to the cool watch that goes well with my nicely tailored suit.

Same applies to my glasses, shoes, or my wife’s designer handbag. It is that simple and Apple has the design street cred to get there while other tech geeks simply do not.