Wearable Computing Market Starts To Attract Companies To Its Fold

Google Glass

(Image Credit: http://www.google.com)

It appears the wearable computing market is attracting a number of companies despite being considerably small for the moment.

The face of the market may have changed following the reported announcement of Jawbone, a wireless headset firm, that it will acquire BodyMedia, a manufacturer of wearable sensors. The deal will reportedly be worth around $100 million. The market is starting to grow with the Google Glass Project at the forefront. The market also includes other devices that people normally overlook like heart rate monitors and sensors found in running shoes.

With the growing interest among companies in wearable computing, the competition may start to become more pronounced as companies aim to position themselves for more profit in the future.

The situation is something that is not unfamiliar for industry watchers, big companies aiming to dominate the platform used for devices. Microsoft was able to dominate the platform market in the 1990s while the Android OS of Google is starting to gain ground on the iOS in the mobile OS market.

Creating a dominant platform will allow companies to profit from the applications that developers create for the platform. The limited resources of developers will compel them to concentrate in two platforms when they create applications for devices. The company that creates a dominant platform for wearable computing devices will likely dominate the entire market in the future.

For the moment, wearable computing devices have not made a huge impact in the market. But with the entry of the Google Glass, the market may soon change. At present, the types of devices that will be released into the market remain uncertain, although this may change soon enough.

Google has started to get the ball rolling when it enticed developers to create applications for its Google Glass device. In fact, an investment group was formed by Google Ventures, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, and Andreessen Horowitz recently to provide the capital needed to create products for the Google Glass device.

A number of smaller companies have also started to create their own wearable computing devices that are aimed at the fitness and health markets, which is considered a good market to tap.

The competition is not cut-throat for the moment. A platform is being developed by MapMyFitness that can link around 400 devices together. It can also upload different fitness and health data. However, the company is also among the ten app creators that partnered with Jawbone for its Up platform that aims to entice more developers.

As the technology continues to develop, it may not be far off for other big-name companies to throw their hat into the wearable computing market in the future.