Is Google’s upcoming “Glass” product – a wearable piece of technology that essentially puts the power of a smartphone into a hands-free headset – a risky investment? That’s what it looks like this week, after a poll conducted by Harris Interactive found that only 46 percent of Americans are interested in wearable technology at all, and that only 10 percent fit into the “very interested” group.

None of this is exactly surprising news. Google Glass, for all of the high-profile news headlines it has generated this year, was always going to be a bit of luxury niche product. In other words, while Google may be hoping to do for wearable devices what Apple did for smartphones half a decade ago, it is highly likely that the Google Glass will have a following more akin to something like a video game console: it will have a very dedicated base of users, but that base of users won’t make it the ubiquitous product the iPhone has become.

The Harris Interactive survey, in showing how split the population is in its viewpoint on wearable devices, essentially proved that the technology will have an uphill battle to face if it really wants to become the “next big thing.” The survey found that more than half of the respondents weren’t that into the idea of a smartwatch, and 63 percent were skeptical – or worse – about high-tech glasses. Furthermore, 49 percent of all respondents view wearable technology as little more than a current fad.

Needless to say, the survey doesn’t give the best outlook on wearable technology for companies like Google, Apple, or Samsung. While Google is breaking into the marketplace with Google Glass (which is supposedly hitting shelves in early 2014), Apple, Samsung, and other competitors are more interested in the next generation of wristwatches. In fact, Samsung already has advertisements on TV for its upcoming “Galaxy Gear” watch, though marketing specialists have speculated that the ads, which pay tribute more to the concept of the smartwatch than to Samsung’s version of it, may actually be giving a marketing push to other companies poised to introduce their own technologies in the coming months.

Regardless of what the Harris Interactive survey indicates, no one will really know how much consumer power wearable devices have until all of the big name devices hit the market. In any case, tech companies can take solace knowing that Harris Interactive only polled 2,577 Americans, and that younger audiences were, in general, much more open to the idea of wearable technology than their older counterparts.