Tech journalism is obsessed with the question of whether or not new product categories will replace existing ones, also known as, “Are these the future?”
After teasing Meta’s new smart glasses, Mark Zuckerberg said, “You probably have this experience often where you’re sitting at your desk, and you have your computer there, yet you still pull out your phone to do things.”
It’s funny to say that after Apple released iPhone Mirroring in their latest OS. I no longer pick up my phone at my desk. That is an issue isolated to the past.
But Zuck answered the question of whether or not this could replace existing devices by arguing that new devices don’t have to replace devices to be a valid product category.

I specifically recall this moment from 14 years ago, where Steve Jobs said this about adding more product categories:

Everybody uses a laptop and/or a smartphone. And the question has arisen lately, “Is there room for a third category of device in the middle? Something that’s between a laptop and a smartphone?”
And of course, we’ve pondered this question for years as well. The bar’s pretty high. In order to really create a new category of devices, those devices are going to have to be far better at doing some key tasks.

Steve outlined those key tasks:

browsing the web
doing email
enjoying and sharing photographs
watching videos
enjoying your music collection
playing games
reading ebooks

Those first five tasks (web, email, photos, videos, and music) are what I would consider core features to qualify as one of our primary devices.
Each of us has room for one or two primary devices. For some, it’s a phone and a laptop. For others, it can be a phone and a tablet. Maybe it’s just a phone. But I sincerely doubt many people use three primary devices regularly.
If we have other devices outside of our one-or-two primary device group, those are accessories. I have an iPad that I only use to sketch with. Others use theirs only for ebooks. Or only on vacation as a temporary substitute for their Mac. My Apple Watch is only for telling time; I can’t expect it handle any key task that qualifies it as a primary device.

Let’s be honest, making a new primary device is effectively impossible. We probably won’t see a smartphone-killer or a computer-killer ever. The market is saturated and the bar is extremely high. All these companies know that. That’s why they’re making expensive accessories instead.
Smart glasses are not the future. If you can’t browse the web, compose email, share photos, watch videos, and listen to music with it, you can forget about it. The only devices that could be considered “the future” have to do—at least—all of those things.

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