Wearable Insights

I've had 2 Fitbits. For each one, I used it for about a month before I stopped seeing the value and I left it at home to collect dust. Most early adopters of fitness tracking technology can tell you a similar story. However, I don't think this spells the end of fitness tracking technology by any means.  Most companies are taking advantage of smaller, cheaper electronics and trying to be first to market with a pedometer to gain market share and brand recognition for wearables. However, a fancy pedometer is just a novelty and just the beginning. Fitness tracking will only increase as the technology becomes more invisible and engaging. Apple and Google are producing wearables now, and their wearables will benefit from their platform and their 3rd party developers. I would expect more developers to start considering wearable device functionality in their mobile applications. As this starts to happen, the appeal of wearables should grow. The current problem is that Fitbits, fo

With the impending release of the Apple Watch in the next few months, there will be a new market for apps that use the hardware. I plan to document my learning progress in this blog post. Swift, the new programming language for Apple Products Being entirely new to iOS development, I plan to start with Swift instead of Objective-C because the newer language seems smarter and easier to learn. Swift Tutorial: A Quick Start  by Ray Wenderlich and continue with the subsequent tutorials which demonstrate how to make a tip calculator for iOS  and so on. Ray's blog tutorial series is wonderfully thorough; it is replete with screenshots and has great notes and comments in the code that explain how Swift functions. Although many of the notes address Objective-C developers, most of the notes are helpful even for a complete n00b like me. At several milestones, he even provides down to the project at that stage in the development process which is a great feature for anyone that wants to

In the last 2 years, wearable devices have grown significantly, however, none has had a lasting, substantial effect. Fitbits famously lose their appeal after just a few weeks once the users understand their basic patterns. Google Wear devices or Google Glass have made lasting, substantial effects but have only been adopted by bleeding edge enthusiasts and Android developers. Apple, however, reaches a broader spectrum of consumers and is trusted by it's loyalists to release polished products. Apple Watch will succeed where others fell short for the following reasons: 1. Loyal Apple Customers The top reason Apple Watch will go where other wearables have not...because people will buy Apple products. Apple creates a "walled garden" where users' data is kept in a beautiful form, but it can't leave. 2. Design With so many possible combinations of bands and finishes, the customer can truly personalize the device. Additionally, Apple's design lang

I attended the Glazed Wearable Conference in San Francisco this week and these are my conclusions about the future of wearable technologies: 1. Not just fitness wearables Fitness tracking wearables are the first but certainly not the last kind of wearables we will see. 2. Wearables are still just novelties There is still a disconnect between developers and the users. For the most part, developers haven't learned to make devices that prove useful beyond the first 3 months of novelty. For more, see this article at Pando Daily . Also, the graph below from Gartner's 2013 analysis of emerging technologies along the hype cycle shows that wearable user interfaces and IoT are still at the peak of hype. If their theory holds, these technologies will be mainstream in 5-10+ years. 3. Low diversity and the assumptions of privileged techies are increasingly problematic A recent Harvard Business Review article suggests that the young, white, privileged, males that rule the

I built a prototype for a wearable device you've never heard of. My prototype,  Hercubit , is a wearable fitness tracker like many others. It tracks your fitness activity with sensors, Bluetooth, and some fancy machine learning algorithms. Hercubit is actually behind the curve; GymWatch, Push, Atlas, Amiigo, and others do this exact same thing but they are already crowd funded and have promises to deliver this year. Nevertheless, my experience building Hercubit has illuminated countless insights about wearable device users and the wearable industry. As I pursue my dream of making a company whose products make people healthier, happier, and smarter I will share my insights in this blog. Any feedback is appreciated.