Building a Profitable Wearable Device May Depend on Who You Partner With

Wearable electronic devices have moved beyond the pages of comic strips like Dick Tracy and have appeared in everything from eyeglasses that incorporate GPS to running shoes that pinpoint their wearer’s immediate location and bracelets that tabulate one’s exercise efforts.

But wearables are still far from mainstream, and the next round of product engineering will require exploiting the relative strengths of the “big five platforms” — i.e., Apple, Google, Microsoft, Amazon and Facebook.

So says a new report from Forrester Research Inc., adding that without these Blue Chip Companies, wearables — defined as “devices worn on or near the body that sense and relay information” — are just another passing fad.

According to the Forrester report, five platforms are the only game in town — each with its own specialty:

Apple scores big in marketing, channel and brand, and has the best chance to take a product mainstream. Just look at how the iPad overtook a decade’s worth of tablet PCs in less than a year.

Google’s…

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