LAS VEGAS — When Evernote launched Evernote Market and its line of retail products in September, CEO Phil Libin had no idea what to expect.

Evernote, which achieved prominence by offering a suite of tools to help users collect their notes and then access them from the cloud on any device, was now in the business of making styli and scanners. The company known for its note-taking software was spending time and energy manufacturing Post-It note holders.

The move didn't fit the traditional business strategy that software companies often take in Silicon Valley, but Libin doesn't care.

"It's design practice," he told Mashable on Tuesday at the Collision Conference in Las Vegas. "In five years, once wearables and connected devices are just dominant, I don't think companies that don't understand how to design for the real world will succeed."

The Evernote Market has been a surprising success. Evernote sold more than $7 million in product over the first two quarters, which was "significantly more" than Libin expected, more than half of which came from users who don't pay for the more expansive version of the app. It's not a revenue stream that will drastically move the needle for Evernote, but it's still nice when a "practice" project yields millions in return, he says.

"We were really trying to come out even," says Libin. "I didn't want this to be a way that we were losing large amounts of money because I didn't want to constantly justify it over and over again. I thought it would be worth losing lots of money on this for the practice, but I thought, if we could just break even it's going to make the whole thing much more peaceful."

Evernote has grand plans for its software, including the expectation that one day, its services will know enough about those using it to make their lives easier. That means prepping notes before they need them, or identifying when a user is on vacation versus a work trip based on what they're uploading.

Part of gathering that data will require an Evernote product that is always accessible to users. That will require pairing the software with other products users engage with — wearables like watches or glasses and other smart products like cars or even a refrigerator, says Libin.

Evernote's product line was intended to give the company a taste of how the manufacturing world operates. Libin doesn't have plans to make a wearable device at Evernote, though he isn't taking the option off the table. Regardless of who makes the device, it's clear Evernote sees wearables as an important element of the service moving forward.

That road will also include an IPO, but Libin says that's still two, maybe even three years away. Libin has promised publicly — and repeated to Mashable on Tuesday — that Evernote will never sell user data or use that info to lure advertisers. If the company truly does gather data the way Libin hopes, that data will present a tantalizing option for the company, especially when facing pressure from investors down the road.

Still, Libin says he isn't worried about the temptation.

"Anything we do to undermine trust us may be better short term, but that's going to cost us a lot more in the long term," he says. "The temptations are short lived."

The focus on wearables is part of the reason Libin doesn't see a future with ads. Finding ads that work well on mobile phones when you're competing for screen space and user attention is hard enough, he says. Putting ads on a Google Glass display or a connected car dashboard? It's out of the question, he adds, and the company wants to be prepared with other revenue streams.

Instead, Evernote will rely on a devoted user base, now 100 million strong, to continue paying for a premium product. These are the same users who buy Evernote merchandise and trust the company with their notes and images. It's ultimately this loyalty, which Libin refuses to jeopardize by selling user data, that will determine whether Evernote can achieve Libin's goal of becoming a 100-year company, or joins the long list of useful products that run their course.

It's something else Libin can't predict — but he's willing to take that chance.