It seems the early consensus about the smartwatch is that while it would be a cool, cutting-edge gadget to have and show off to your friends, it won't replace the smartphone anytime soon.
And that makes perfect sense. After all, most of us at this point couldn't envision ever giving up that iPhone or Android. They're essential, almost like a part of our body at this point, or, as they say, the new cigarette.
But here's the thing: Thirty years ago, if you told someone that most of us would be walking around in public spaces with phones to our ears, they'd probably laugh at you.
'Phones are for the home' they'd say. 'Phones have cords!'
But as we've seen, things change, and they change fast nowadays. What's normal now may not be normal tomorrow, and the pace of technology today forces us all to rethink and accept new norms at ever-speedier intervals.
Think about tablet for a moment. While I'm not suggesting a smartwatch will replace your tablet anytime soon, I would suggest that three or four years ago most of us would have laughed at the idea that a tablet would replace your laptop.
That old clunky thing seemed, well, irreplaceable, didn't it?
But now? Well, many people are doing just that. Apple - and the iPad - showed us a new way to think about computing, a better way (for some use-cases, but not all), and it's not that revolutionary or crazy today to say a tablet could act as a laptop replacement.
And I think in time a well done smartwatch will make some people - certainly not all - turn in their smartphone. Of course, it'd need all the features of a smartphone, which will not be a huge leap in time given the ever continued miniaturization of components. It will also need better voice recognition since, after all, our fingers aren't shrinking anytime soon.
But if you're still not convinced, think about it this way. Five decades ago computers filled entire rooms, and phones were stuck to walls. Twenty five years ago computers filled entire desktops, and for the past few decades they've been on our lap. Now they've teamed up with the phone and taken up residence in our pocket.
Is it so strange to think that one day they might actually sit on our wrists?
I didn't think so.
I'm chief analyst at NextMarket Insights. You can read my blog or follow me on Twitter.
