Khoi Vinh writing on Subtraction.com about the iWatch:

The things that we wear aren’t just an expression of who we are, they are an expression of who we want to be with—as friends, as neighbors, as fans, as lovers. A shirt, a pair of glasses, a necktie, a pair of shoes…these are methods that we use to make a connection between our inner selves and other people. We use fashion to signal our particular humanity to other human beings. Fashion can be trite and superficial and, in my experience meeting members of the industry, it can be a magnet for some of the least interesting human beings on earth. Nevertheless it satisfies a deep-seated need for connectedness, and it’s an indispensable part of living in society.

That is one of the reasons  is having problems gaining traction (well, there is also the little problem with privacy, but I digress) with normal people. In fact, Google has implicitly recognized that it’s difficult to sell wearable technology if it makes you look like a character from Start Trek. That’s why it has asked Italian company Luxottica — the biggest eyewear conglomerate in the world — to design the next generation of Google Glass. With the help of Luxottica, Google hopes to be able to come up with a design that will appeal to people, not only to geeks.

The iWatch faces similar challenges. On this account, I’ve briefly touched on the fashion aspect of the iWatch in “What I don’t want in an iWatch” post. The more I think about it, the more I believe that wearable technology must embed a degree of fashion to become popular. And make no mistake, becoming mainstream for a relatively cheap device such as a smartwatch is the only way for any manufacturer to bring in some substantial revenue from it.