What's next
While high tech-companies are working hard on launching a smartwatch or something similar to Google Glass, there is still little thought about what comes next. However if we consider trends in hard- & software, sensor technologies and how we as humans interact with products and devices, a new kind of wearables is already looming on the horizon, namely on-the-skin and/or under-the-skin wearables: invisible, inobtrusive, always 'on', optimal for body monitoring and most importantly perhaps, providing an optimal interaction with our senses resulting in an optimal sensoric experience.
Synergy Gap
This sensoric experience will play an important role in future wearable as it will define the synergy between man and product (the better we match our products with our senses, the closer we can mimic reality in a virtual way). There is an ergonomic synergy gap which will take many decades still to solve for big tech-companies.
To close this (ergonomic) synergy gap and get a better sensoric experience designers and engineers in the consumer electronics industry will need to have a better understanding of how human senses work and how to optimize consumer products accordingly, leading to wearable products that will have a directer and more efficient communication with our senses.
Under-the-skin
The more efficient we can communicate with our senses, the less energy it will require, the smaller the components can be and the smaller and lighter the wearables become. Finally the wearables will become so small upto a point where it simply becomes more convenient to wear them under the skin rather than on the skin, like implants (under-the-skin wearables). Additional benefits for this 'wearingstyle' will be in the prevention of wearing-out/damage, direct access, optimal interaction with the senses and of course in aestethics. A likely sales-model can look similar to getting glasses or piercings today (with trained professionals at point-of-sale).