Since BI Intelligence's early coverage on the wearables market, we have always taken the stance that wearables won't be all-encompassing personal computing devices — at least, not at first.
Rather, wearables will serve as robust extensions to existing mobile devices and will fill certain niche use cases. In many cases, they will work unobtrusively in the background (think about a fitness band counting steps or a smart watch that provides reminders only at certain hours).
They will be out of the way but recording data and providing information when people need it.
In a recent report, BI Intelligence zeroed in on the wearable apps ecosystem, looking at the fragmentation that is holding back app development and pinpointing a few "killer apps" that could make the devices truly compelling.
For now, the wearables apps ecosystem is minimally stocked, and this is holding back wearables as a whole — mainstream consumers still don't see a real purpose served by wearables. But recent developments point in the direction of which wearable apps might succeed.