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Wearables are inherently mobile, but they’re fundamentally different from traditional mobile devices like smartphones and tablets.

By now, many businesses and consumers are familiar with wearable devices. They know they can access information via smart glasses and watches, and that health-monitoring bracelets can track their activity and metabolism. What they may not know is how these nifty new devices actually work.

Wearables are an ecosystem that comprises three fundamental, modular components: sensors, displays, and a computing architecture. Wearable devices usually incorporate just one or two of those components. For example, a smart watch may feature a small display and contain narrowly purposed sensors that gather data about the user, but it may not have internal computing capability. Instead, the cloud or a multipurpose device like a smartphone may provide processing power for the watch. On even smaller devices that function primarily as data-gathering sensors, a nearby screen or a pair of smart glasses may provide the display, while an earbud or pendant gathers verbal cues from the user and the cloud does the computing.

Given their discreet size and portability, wearables represent the next evolution in mobile technology, yet they are a fundamentally different class of technology from smartphones and tablets. In this Tech Trends 2014 video, Evangeline Marzec, a specialist master with Deloitte Consulting LLP, explains some of the differences between wearables and traditional mobile devices.