While Google Glass is the biggest and boldest wearable cloud technology on the market today, it’s still in the early-adopter phase. But according to a recent Forbes blog by Joe McKendrick, more and more on-your-person cloud offerings—including fitness monitors, smart watches, and lifelogging cameras—are coming out, and pretty soon they’ll become ubiquitous.
Citing a study commissioned by Rackspace and conducted in collaboration with the Centre for Creative and Social Technology (CAST), McKendrick writes that the vast majority of wearable technology users (82 percent in the U.S. and 71 percent in the U.K.) “believe that these cloud-powered devices have enhanced their lives.” More specifically, “the study found that 47 percent of the wearable technology users felt more intelligent, and 61 percent felt more informed. Another 37 percent stated that wearable technology helped with career development, while 61 percent claimed that their personal efficiency improved,” McKendrick writes. This meshes with a recent post by Trae Vassallo of Kleiner Perkins about how she uses Google Glass as a parenting aid.
Still, the devices present some drawbacks, including still-primitive data capture and analysis, privacy concerns, and cost. But as the next generation of wearable cloud devices emerges and overcomes some of these concerns, many more consumers are expected to buy in.
