Today I had planned to plunge into a discussion about how wearables are about to follow the arc of the transition from iPod to iPhone. But then I read J. Peterson’s comment on yesterday’s post, and it really struck a chord.
Let’s assume that some large corporation does what Apple did, and creates a plan to “encourage” young kids to stay within that company’s bespoke ecosystem. In that case, wearables might follow a well understood arc.
Parents will first give their little kids a “games only” wearable, one that does not provide full access to the big bad world. On this device, which will be the future equivalent to the iPod Touch, those kids will gradually accumulate apps.
But unlike today’s iPhone apps, these will be more like Pokemon Go — appearing to exist in the world itself. Once kids have these shared apps, they will be able to play all sorts of games and activities together in an augmented reality. These games will be filled with virtual characters that will appear to enhabit the physical reality around them, somewhat like a high-tech version of Philip Pullman’s daemons.
Then when they reach the age of 13, these kids’ parents will grudgingly get them a grown-up wearable that communicates fully with the world. This will be a sort of future equivalent of the iPhone.
Of course the brilliance of this plan is that kids will stay within the ecosystem that allows them to continue to have access to the games and activities that they have learned to love. Except that their loyalty will be even more extreme than the loyalty that today’s kids have toward the Apple ecosystem.
After all, it will be the very reality around them that they will be choosing not to give up. If you ask me, that’s a pretty impressive way to market a product.