Tech – The iWatch

One of many interpretations of what the iWatch might look like

Google Maps built in to your glasses so you’ll never get lost again. Computers that can build houses. Memory chips that carry as much information as all your gadgets put together and are as small as a mosquito.

It may sound outlandish – but these are things that are already in development stages with the big tech companies. These companies are taking the idea of technology and working out how to weave it to the body – so, in effect, you won’t need to leave the house carrying anything except your keys (and even those will soon be a long-distant memory, replaced by retina sensor security). It’s a race – but it looks like the first wave of these products will arrive next year, in the form of the iWatch. Pebble already make a smart watch – that displays data from the iPhone – but Apple obviously don’t want to let control of their best-selling gizmo out of their hands.

So they’re hiring. Big time. Apple are buying up companies in the hope of using the staffs’ expertise to develop its ‘wearable’ lines, and the iWatch is the priority. But, this being Apple, it’s not enough for the iWatch to simply work. It must be an object of desire, inspiring the kind of queues we saw at the launch of the iPhone 5 and looking sleek and modern.

Mind you, getting the iWatch to a stage where it works at all seems to be causing a fair few problems. This week rumours have been flying about Apple’s aggressive hiring, allegedly because it demonstrates that the computer giant isn’t finding sufficient resources in its own staff base – which is already tens of thousands of people strong.

Trouble in paradise? Apple haven’t commented so far on the iWatch (except for international patent applications), which – obviously – sends the gossip-mill into overdrive. Are they trying to build hype before the product launches? These are masters of their game and boy oh boy do they know how to make a product that the whole world and his wife is hankering after.

Of course, all anyone can do at this stage is speculate. How much will it cost? What will it look like? What will it actually do? No one knows except the brains in Sillicone Valley who are working day and night to get the iWatch on the market before the idea itself begins to seem old-hat. This may not be the door to the brave new world – but it’s a step on the path that leads to it.