This blog has already explored the future of wearables and outlined directions in which they are likely to form an integral part of the way we interact with others and with our surroundings.
One of the key factors touched upon was the fact that features and functionality alone don’t guarantee the success of wearables devices. Like clothing, jewellery and other fashion accessories, they have to fulfil the wearer’s emotional needs such as self-concept, acceptance by others, reassurance, and status. Arguably, this is already true for smartphones as evidenced by the profitability that Apple manages to command on its products. While the Apple Watch has shown that smartphones can be cool and desirable, Google has singularly failed on this account with its Glass product to such an extent that commentators are doubting the future of smart eyewear.
While style is important for consumer products, it is much less of a consideration in the workplace, a factor that is driving the main IT software players to make big investments in this space. In June, Salesforce launched Salseforce Wear, a platform to integrate wearable devices into its enterprise platforms, together with a $100million investment fund for companies using this platform. Similarly, SAP is partnering with Samsung to integrate their business software into Samsung wearable devices such as smartwatches, for use in industries such as healthcare, finance and oil and gas. Research company ABI forecasts that this market will grow at more than 50% per year over the next five years reaching $18billion by 2019.
So what are the principal categories that will drive growth in this space?
Smart Eyewear
Style, or the lack of, is not a particularly strong requirement for the corporate IT buyer. Therefore the ‘dorkish’ look of augmented reality glasses is not an impediment to their takeup in the workplace, where they are perfectly suited for a multitude of applications, from carrying out maintenance work, to assisting surgical procedures and staff training. This is an area that Lenovo believes it can become a major player in, and has partnered up with Vuzix, a small maker of smart eyewear, with the purpose of complementing their Thinkpad line of laptops. In this context, consider wearables as much more compact replacements for laptops and tablets, which can facilitate access to information in an extremely wide range of use cases.
Smart Bands
Here there are two main angles. A number of companies are already introducing fitness and health bands as part of their programmes to improve the health and well-being of their employees. Whilst it is naturally in an employer’s best interest to have a healthy workforce, there are also benefits to be had in terms of health and life insurance costs. One example is the programme BP has established with Staywell Health Management to provide employees with Fitbit devices to drive behavioural change and achieve slimmer waistlines, and although both employers and employees can achieve lower insurance costs, whether this is driving genuine long-term behavioural change remains an open question.
Smart bands also provide an effective means of person identification. Already used in high-end Casinos and Disney theme parks to track customers and provide a tailored experience, many companies are betting that wearables will replace smart cards and other passes to manage access to the workplace. One example is a band by a Canadian start-up called Nymi, which identifies the wearer through the pulse measured by the device. Nymi are specifically targeting the office access control as being a key market for their product, which can then also be used as a replacement for credit cards, house keys and car keys.
Smartwatches
The third main category is smart watches, which is about to receive an almighty boost by the launch of the Apple Watch. However don’t expect to see companies buying their employees an Apple Watch anytime soon. Instead, the most obvious application for smart watches are situations where for safety reasons or not to cause distractions, it is important that an employee can retain use of both hands at all time. In this way, the smartwatch becomes a replacement for the phone, a tool by which people can communicate and access information with (hopefully) minimal distraction.
Other devices
Additionally to the above, there will be a plethora of specialised applications and devices that will be used to meet the very specific needs of given industries. Professional sports teams have long used GPS-enabled sports kits to track performance and tactics of players. In Australia, ingestible devices are being used to track the inner body temperature of firefighters to monitor warn if the situation becomes particularly dangerous. Several law enforcement bodies around the world are experimenting and introducing wearable cameras to record interactions with the public to reduce paperwork and provide a reliable record of events in case of a dispute.
As always, don’t forget about privacy and security
So far, we have largely spoken about the promise or potential for wearables to transform the workplace. In order for them to become accepted in the workplace and to really achieve these goals, a number of hurdles must be overcome. Most importantly, employers must give confidence to their employees that their privacy will not be compromised through use of these devices. An individual’s location, his fitness habits, whom he interacts with and so on all have very significant privacy implications. Nobody wants to be snooped on by their boss, no matter how dedicated they are to their job. Secondly, as many of these devices have been developed with consumers in mind, to date they largely lack the security mechanisms to prevent them being exploited maliciously, and have yet to be integrated into companies’ device management and IT systems in the way Blackberries and other smartphones are today. However, above all, it is crucial not to consider these devices as simply another form factor to which existing mobile apps need to be adapted. There is no cognitive load benefit if a smartphone workflow app is simply modified to fit on a smartwatch screen. It must be recognised that these devices will be used in entirely different ways, often through use of gestures and voice control, and sometimes without any direct interaction or input from the wearer.