I have talked about, written and promoted my beliefs that 2014 is the year of the wearable and was elated to see CBS running this story. While the story had little, if anything, to do with the financial industry directly, its main message should have everyone thinking long and hard about this rapidly growing trend of wearable technology.
The main message I took away from the CBS story (other than reminiscing about the adventures of one of my favorite comic book characters) was that wearable technology is on the verge of being mainstream. I had talked about this coming out of January’s Consumer Electronic Show, but the fact that CBS was running a feature on it had me nodding my head. The clunkiness of the initial wearable technology is slowly fading and the quick dying battery seems to be less and less of a problem as more great minds are turning their focus to this space. Google Glass is rolling out in larger numbers and more are entering the explorer program, and they have sun glass options available as well (I heard that news and started singing the Corey Hart song to myself).
The news of bleeding-edge fintech companies adding apps for these devices shouldn’t come as a surprise (walla.by recently announced an app for pebble) as more consumers start to wear them; and having an app for the device will help differentiate these vendors as others scramble to join the fray. The mobile and tablet market has become extremely competitive and as we move on through the year, I expect we’ll see a massive influx of topical stories, and banks and other financial service providers rapidly begin rolling out their own test cases for all sorts of wearables. So while mobile remains “hot”, the “the next big thing” is wearable technology. Let the arms race begin.
Payments hub 
