Ready to Grab Your Share in the Wearable Era?

We almost are sure that wearable technology is the next big thing. Projects like Google Glasses are providing you with an opportunity to make unique impacts on your high value markets. As a graduate student in Northwestern's Medill IMC marketing program, I’ve been exploring the new wearable era and its potential for business.

I found two compelling articles about what users want from wearable technologies and made three suggestions for anyone who wants to grab a share in this highly promising market.

Engadget: Wearable Computing Should Constantly Monitor Its Surroundings

Photo from engadget: [link].

By the end of last year, engadget put up a great article by  Donald Melanson and Michael Gorman: Our augmented selves: The promise of wearable computing. It summarized our shared vision of wearable technologies: thin and flexible, ability to simulate other devices, and constantly monitor its surroundings. With wearable technologies, we are shifting our focus from making “smarter things”, to become “smart people.”

All Things D: The Interfaces Are Melting

Photo from Misfit Shine: [link].

This spring, All Things D put up another inspirational article by  Liz Gannes talking about the disappearing interface. It argued that instead of all-purpose, full-focus devices, we might have a set of new tools, migrating outward, on and around our bodies, to our fingers and heads and wrists and ears, and even feet. Those interfaces melt so both inputs and outputs can adapt and be more accessible.

3 Suggestions for Investors in Wearable Technologies

From my analysis of these two articles any my work at Northwestern, here are three active items you need to consider in the wearable era.

1. Try New Sensors
   Users don't want to "key-in" all the information by themselves with wearable technology. Both sensors that collect data about the environment and sensors that enable better voice control, gesture control, and brain control have the potential to be game changers. You definitely should try new sensors when consider investing in the wearable gadgets.
2. Own a Category
   Users want their wearable devices to be as strong as our mobile phone, but as light as a clip. And instead of just one device, users will end up having a set of devices, blended in their lives. Choose one category and own it and you will have your place in the future of wearable technologies.
3. Invest in Building Blocks
   Batteries and new materials will always be critical to wearable devices. Be sure to keep an eye on those building blocks. 

Forrester analyst Sarah Rotman Epps argued "in three years, wearables would matter to every product strategist" and Juniper Study predicted it would be a $1.5 billion business by 2014. So grab your share in the wearable market today before someone else steals it.

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Samantha Zhang is a grad student at Northwestern University studying Integrated Marketing Communications, specialized in technology startups. Prior to grad school, she worked with several startups in China and hit No.7 in the educational section in Chinese App Store. Now she’s working on a revolutionary note-taking app: Chisel. You can get connected with her @moyicat.

Why You Shouldn’t Care About Apple’s Current Stock Price

Apple’s stock nosedive is no longer breaking news.  As an Integrated Marketing Graduate student, I have been closely following Apple's successes and failures and am always curious what those Cupertino lads are up to.  And when I first heard this, my reaction was one of selfish consumerism: does that mean the "new iPhone" will start being....less awesome?  Are they going to start making inferior products that I can no longer stand in line for?  Selfish. But likely a common reaction among Apple junkies or even baby boomers who just learned how to turn off their iPad with the little rectangular lever at the top.  What does this information mean to the Apple using public?  

Not much.  

http://mattlevan.blogspot.com/

Stock prices are a finicky thing, especially in the technology sector.  Balaji Viswanathan, writer for Forbes and founder of Zingfin, reminds us that in “2005, Microsoft appeared that invincible Goliath, but has now slipped below the media radar.”  Also, it’s important to remember that stock prices often reflect the public’s perception of the value of a company and not necessarily the actual long term value.  When looking at Apple’s actual revenue, The New York Times reports that “analysts expect the company to report another solid quarter next week.  It has been making so much money, it is having a hard time figuring out what to do with all that cash.”  (Think Walter White's wife in the last episode of Breaking Bad.  So...Apple could rent a storage space?) Problems that most companies would like to have.  Most importantly, look at why Apple is where it is today: product innovation. Steve Jobs believed that you could create an appeal for a product that didn’t exist.  

Artist rendering of the rumored iTV.
Guitherme Martin Schasiepen

After ingesting this bit of news, I realized there are three things, you, as consumers and perhaps Apple Fans, can do to make sure nobody doubts the future of Apple, Inc:

1. Do not return your iPad.  No matter how much you want to give it back for fear that those less fortunate never had the chance to experience swipes that cut fruit with an imaginary sword...don't....do it.

2. Do look forward to future Apple launches.  Don't get sad about Apple's latest financial hiccups.  Be happy about their future profit platter that includes every continent and Texas. 

3. Do NOT...Definitely do NOT go back to the PC.  For the love of everything that is intuitive and drag and drop...please, stay with your MacBook, MacBook Air, Mac Mini...whatever it is, just don't turn the dark side.  

As Jobs famously said “the best way to predict the future is to invent it." Apple is said to be launching an iTV and an iWatch sometime in 2013. Two products that will undoubtedly help shape Apple’s own future.  A future nobody should lose any sleep over.   

So if you hear about the struggling behemoth that you should pity, don't.  

Grant Jones is a Integrated Marketing Master's Student at Northwestern University. He has 8 years of experience in marketing and creative video production in New York City. Follow him at @grantwjones.