Stolen Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) products are in the news again, but this time it seems the culprit may have broken into a Microsoft office complex to get his prize. According to the Sun, (and yes, all reporting from the Sun should be taken with a huge grain of salt) the successful rogue made off with over $3,000 of Apple gear despite an abundance of competing tablets—as the facility is purported to be one that conducts product research. It may well have been an inside job, as there were also no reported signs of forced entry and any leads on a suspect have yet to “Surface.”
As far as the verifiable Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) rumor mill goes, it seems that wearable tech is shaping up to be the next big trend. Many analysts believe that the Smartphone game is a matter of chasing marketshare rather than creating it at this point, so it goes to follow that innovation is the next step that any responsible tech firm is going to take. But it seems that the two biggest players have vastly different ideas about how this trend should be implemented.
Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) has hyped Google Glass since April, and Glass has become one of the most shared video brands of 2012. Recently we’ve learned that voice commands and head gestures might be involved, which might actually be a pretty awesome way to control a hands-free device. Rumors about an Apple watch, on the other hand, seem to be gaining momentum—but haven’t generated any specific or quantifiable ideas about exactly what such a product would do other than simply be “wearable computing.”
Speculation about what a “smartwatch” could do is easy enough to create even if there’s no way to tell exactly what Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) would do with one. Most that are currently on the market act as a device that compliments a limited amount of a smartphone’s capability, but instead sit on a wrist instead of in the hand—and there’s plenty of application for a product that does this. Being able to access iTunes without taking a phone out of a purse or pocket is useful, but it is nowhere near innovative.
So, for a watch to be Apple’s next big “thing,” my gut tells me it would have to beat that paradigm, and beat out Google Glass. And honestly, I’m not sure it could—even if it had total Star Trek functionality through Skype and a really powerful noise-canceling microphone. Unless the watch comes replete with a 3-D food printing replication system and dematerializing transporter, what a watch would do has already been done. A watch would just do either less of it or exactly as much of it—smaller and more accessibly. It seems to be more of an incremental change than a paradigm shift.
If Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) pulls off Glass poorly and an iWatch is executed well, that might be all Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) needs. But that development can’t necessarily be counted on—so it will be exciting to see what Apple might actually do with one if Cook pursues that direction.
What are your thoughts on wearable tech and the Apple Watch? Think I’m wrong about a potential win for Glass?
