CES 2015: Wearables aren’t ready for the big time yet, apparently

The geek with a Google Glass in your office might disagree (and yes, some of the Shiny Shiny team too), but according to one company boss at CES 2015 wearable tech still isn’t quite ready for the mass market yet.

At Qualcomm‘s press conference yesterday, president Derek Aberle admitted that it might still be a while before wearables really hit the mainstream – despite the telecommunications giant already powering more than 15 wearables across 30 different countries.

Techheads might already have forgotten how they ever lived without their Fitbit or NFC Ring, but Aberle reckons developers might need to keep experimenting with different ideas and technologies if they want to hit on a tool that works well enough to convince the average consumer.

‘There’s not going to be one right choice for wearables,’ he said. ‘I think in the next few years we’ll see it consolidating, but will take trial and error before we get there.’

Specifically, Aberle predicts a huge growth in health wearables in coming years, as consumers warm up to the idea of medical apps. Linking everything effectively with smartphones is also going to be key to wearable success too, with Qualcomm ready to use everything it’s learned making mobile phone chips to inform its wearable development.

“[The wearable market] is very connected to smartphones, so this allows us to leverage our position in the smartphone space so we’ll have to see how we go forward in the future,” said Aberle.

If he’s right, maybe in a few years we’ll look back at the tech we wore in 2014 and laugh…

This week we’re bringing you all the latest news, videos and gossip from CES 2015 in Las Vegas. Check out the CES 2015 page to keep up to date and subscribe to our YouTube channel to see hands-on news with our editor Holly Brockwell from the show floor.