Michal Ždanský This week, the Google I/O developer conference will begin, where one of the main topics will be smart watches on the Android Wear platform, which Google introduced a few months ago. We may very well see the first devices from LG and Motorola to try to prove that a smartwatch can be a great addition to a phone.
Meanwhile, the world awaits the next smart wearable device from Apple. The mythical iWatch, for which expectations are growing month by month and speculative articles and alleged leaks not confirmed by anyone feed the readership of many technology magazines. However, no one but Apple employees know what we can expect. However, we can almost certainly say that we won't see anything in the next two months, certainly not before we see the first working Android Wear smartwatch.
So far, a number of articles analyzing the potential of iWatch have been published on foreign and Czech servers. The usual suspects include monitoring biometric functions, monitoring fitness activity, displaying notifications and, last but not least, also displaying time/weather or calendar events. Despite the potential attributed to iBeacon technology, many people have surprisingly not associated it with iWatch use.
While the iPhone may itself be an iBeacon, and theoretically holds the same potential as the iWatch within the technology, the fact is that we don't always have our phone with us. For example, if we are at home, we often have it on the table or placed next to the nearest outlet from which it is charged. On the other hand, we always have our watches on our hands, closest to our bodies, many times even while sleeping.
And what could be the use? First, the iWatch would determine our relative location. For example, how far we are from other devices in the home. Devices would easily know if we are near them and react accordingly. Let's consider just three basic devices from Apple - iPhone, iPad and Mac. How many times does it happen that the same notification from an application, for example from News or from Twitter, appears on all devices a few seconds after another. Especially with a large number of notifications, this situation can be quite annoying.
But what if the iWatch only allowed the device you're closest to to alert you to the notification. When you sit at your computer, it will appear on it. With only the phone next to you, the iPad lying a few meters away will be silent while the phone announces an incoming message.
Another potential lies in the recently introduced HomeKit, a home automation platform. If the individual devices supporting this platform could communicate with each other through a hub, which could be an iPhone or an Apple TV, the system could automatically respond to your presence by turning on the light in the room you are currently in, switching the set of speakers in the house or regulating the temperature in the rooms where no one is.
Of course, the use of iBeacon would be just another function, not the flagship function of the entire device. However, its potential could have an impact on the future of the integrated ecosystem that Apple has been building for a long time. Continuity introduced at WWDC is another piece of the puzzle, which incidentally also uses Bluetooth LE in part to determine the distance between two devices.
After all, there are more indications from WWDC. App extensions could mean third-party integration into smartwatch software, while HealthKit is an obvious platform for utilizing the biometric sensors the watch might have.
The absence of an ecosystem is why smartwatches as a market segment have not been very successful so far. The device itself is not the key to success. Just as a mobile phone needs a good app ecosystem (BlackBerry knows about that), a smartwatch needs an ecosystem of devices and services to revolve around. And here Apple has a fundamental advantage - it owns the device, the platform and the entire ecosystem.
If you came up with this on your own, Michal, kudos. Then again, I didn't catch anyone predicting this possibility anywhere, but it definitely makes sense!
Thanks. I was surprised that no one had thought of it yet.
Michal, thanks for the article, I like conspiracy theories and even more the ones whose end could be true - if someone doesn't bring it up sooner, we'll find out how it is in September :)
Me lol :D Great article :)
Perfect article and I think the author hit the nail on the head, I would almost put my hand in the fire that we will see some of the mentioned functions....