Where did wearables go wrong?

Futurists promised a “wearable computing” world in which you could buy gadgets that could perform a thousand functions and live anywhere on your body.

Instead, the vast majority of wearables are biometric wristwatches, measuring mostly heart rate and bodily movement. The top-selling wearables come from Fitbit, Apple, Xiaomi, Garmin and Samsung — all watches that measure movement and heart rate.

The overwhelming predominance of fitness watches is problematic in four ways that hardly anybody talks about.

1. You can wear only one. If you’re inclined to own a smartwatch, you already have one. Your wrist is taken. So the hundreds of new smartwatches on the market are unusable and irrelevant to you as a consumer.

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