Differentiating With Wearable Tech

by Mary C Long 

“Is there an app for that?” 
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These days, the answer to that question is invariably “yes.” A quick look at the app marketplace makes it clear: everyone is building an app. For everything. 

​But for many businesses, this is a waste of time and resources. The odds of anyone, other than your Aunt Sally, using your app when it’s the 305th of its kind to hit the market, are slim. Same goes for or new apps that are single-function focused. No, making an app is neither a differentiator, game changer, nor a money-maker. Don’t believe the hype. 

So how is one to stand out from the crowd then? Given current trends, it seems that a solid possibility to explore — and prepare for — is wearables. 

When Will Wearables Win Us Over? 
Will wearables turn out to be the next app-type rush that leads nowhere? Perhaps. But those who make their reputations by predicting the future direction of tech appear to be unanimous that the future is in wearables, particularly when it comes tobetter understanding our own health. 
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Consumer response to wearables has been tepid, at best, but there’s a simple explanation for that — the concept is really still in its infancy. Also, for a new technology to take off, it needs to solve an existing problem. This is something that the current generation of wearables has not managed to do in any significant way ... yet.

​Consider the smartphone: the idea was intriguing, something from the Saturday morning cartoons of our youth. But who really needed a phone in their pocket all the time? Apparently we all did. And now that question is being asked about having that same technology on your wrist. 

“Who needs wearable tech” indeed. 

The time for wearables is soon. And it’s how businesses of tomorrow will pull out ahead of more cautious adopters.

Moving Existing Thinking Forward 
How will tomorrow’s wearable look? And how long will it take before we move the thinking beyond your smart watch and glasses to malleable tech that slips into the sleeve of your hoodie or snaps on your finger like blood pressure gauge that’s closer to a glove? Is it really that hard to imagine, considering? 

Powering these next-level wearables is an issue, of course. KalpTree Energy offers a “Battery-on-Wire” that can be configured to fit smoothly within a piece of wearable technology, offering “a new generation of smaller, lighter, and safer batteries that are flexible and can be manufactured in an unlimited variety of shapes.” 

And beyond powering these items, we’re really only limited by our imaginations. 

Nest is already marketing the products that will make our houses smarter. As these products become more sophisticated, our means of controlling them will need to become smarter as well. What better place to locate a centralized “smart” system than within a wearable? Can a suit of clothes capable of controlling Smart House technology — and more — be that far away?

But even with all of that happening, and knowing that you’ll soon be controlling your world through what you wear — how can you plan ahead for these unknown wearables? It’s all about understanding and adapting to new technologies as they hit the market. It’s a mindset of embracing change and becoming an early adopter, but at an accelerated clip — because we’ve seen what happens when businesses don’t. 

And it’s about differentiating ahead of competitors. Because much like that 305th app of its kind to get released, you don’t want to be at the back-end of this learning curve. With each iteration, the tech race becomes more competitive and once wearables take hold, the world will change.

Be prepared to set the pace, or stop wasting your time and money and step aside.

Are you ready? 

This post originally appeared on CMSWire