When I read that Google is releasing a developer preview for their watch platform, I immediately thought "Not more screens!". While living in a multi screen world, with a phone, tablet, laptop (possibly a desktop), glasses, and a watch may seem great, I'm generally opposed to it.
My main reason for a shift in thinking comes from the movie Her where screens are virtually eliminated and replaced with seamless technology integrations. It presents a world of ordinary (pre-personal computer) devices which blend seamless into our environment and aid instead of taking away from our lives.
When I think of more screens, I think about how each item will require its own way of charging, will have its own hangups and slowdowns (and frustrating load times), and how I will look at the world around me even less.
It's already difficult as it is with a phone, can you imagine having a watch on top of that? One that will continuously stream information onto your wrist, screaming "read me, read me!". I can and I don't want it. Having a pedometer and exercise tracker is great but that's why we have stuff like fitbit which is wireless and works mainly as an input device, making sure it doesn't distract you from what you do, and contacts your phone/laptop whatever device you use for information ingestion. But what about texts and emails and reminders and "Google Now" context related information?
I honestly don't want to be reminded anymore. I don't even keep an email app on my phone just because the constant stream of requests from work, updates from various sites, spam, and recruiters trying to poach me is the most distracting and annoying thing out there. Can't imagine having a watch that would buzz or blink at me whenever I get an email. Might as well have a techno party.
Think about the video on the page, of the dad checking sports scores while he's bathing his kids. Or as the Moto 360 insinuates is a date, and checking your emails there. Where will that lead? Dad wanting to send a text to his friend about the score, post a facebook update...anddddd, nothing's solved.
All of that aside, let's say I can filter out the noise. What am I left with? I'm left with yet another device that takes up my time and solves hardly anything. And on top of that, it is almost just like every device we already have (and depend on): our tablets, our phones, our phablets, our ultrabooks, netbooks, *books, and iP*ds.
You see, these "screens" filled with "app stores" work on a broken premise: that you want to dedicate your time to the device.
It's backward. What you want is for that device to dedicate its time and life to improving your life. And on top of that, you don't want MORE devices. The point is to have LESS devices that can do their job and they can do it WELL, exceptionally well. We've finally gotten the web to pretty much behave that way...on a full-scale computer (laptop/desktop). But that's it.
For instance, people buy both eReaders and tablets because tablets do a terrible job as a reading device (due to the light and battery life) and eReaders do a terrible job of being a tablet (because of feature constraints). We have tablets because phone screens are too small and (most) laptops are too big. But then we have ultrabooks because tablets have restrained features (and no keyboard). It's a world of mess already which no one is trying to solve.
We keep slapping screens on devices in hopes that it becomes the "next best thing" and becomes so crucial to our lives that it creates a brand new market for software developers, hardware makers, and funnels a big ton of cash to the first company that brands itself as The Innovator in the field.