Could smart watches be the next frontier in the digital revolution?

Sony already has a product on the market - the SmartWatch 2 (Sony)

Imagine a miniature version of your smartphone that's on you all the time, letting you know when people call you, and keeping you updated with the gossip on your social networks. Welcome to the new frontier of digital technology, the smart watch.

While smart watches as a concept aren't the newest type of tech out there, they are gaining traction and popularity. It's been predicted that by 2016, around 40 million smart watches will be sold. And where there's money to be made, there's rumours that the big names in tech are currently developing their own smart watches.

Apple have been reportedly working on an iWatch for a while, and it's expected to be announced in the next year. According to the Wall Street Journal, Google is also developing a wristwatch which is powered by its Android operating system.

Sony already has a product on the market - the SmartWatch 2. The Android-compatible watch has hundreds of dedicated apps, can answer calls, take photos, and... tell the time. Sony's main rivals are the Pebble, and the MetaWatch Strata, which retail at £90 and £85 respectively. Remarkably, both of them made their name through KickStarter, a fundraising website - and both of them can be run on either Android or Apple's iOS.

Will smart watches be a hit with the public? The proof is in the pudding - Pebble managed to raise £6.5m online, which shows a real appetite for the mini supercomputers - and the tech giants are gearing up for some tough competition over the next few years.