The impact of wearable technology on business mobility

Introduction to changing mobile technologies

           The mobile technology has seen a rapid transformation recently. While the businesses are just beginning to utilize the mobile apps for smart mobile phones and tablets to their advantage, the arrival of wearable technology has cast a spell on the users. Many businesses are wondering if they should develop a smart phone application at all. It is true that the fast paced changes in technologies make some of the recent ones obsolete. This article analyzes the impact of wearable technology on the business mobility and on the smart mobile phone application.

Use of enterprise mobile applications

The use of enterprise mobile apps in the corporate businesses has just gained momentum. Industries have started using mobile applications to simplify complex tasks and provide instant access to vital data to the employees on the move. Early birds that acknowledged the value of business mobility did reap the benefits of using mobile apps in the production and marketing areas. Several of the businesses and organizations, such as banks, hospitals, manufacturing units, retail stores and automobiles among others are successfully utilizing enterprise level mobile applications. Many others have also jumped into the bandwagon to make use of the new technology to their advantage.

Benefits of enterprise level applications

Within a short span of its debut smart mobile phones and tablets have had a great impact on the various aspects of businesses, such as production and marketing. As of now mobile applications are being used to simplify complex business processes and to increase productivity. The ability of apps to empower employees with remote working capability has also made production very efficient. The role of mobile applications in the marketing arena is undoubtedly a prominent one. Today, mobile applications have become an inevitable business tool to reach, engage, and woo customers of all classes. Seers predict that the mobile revolution has just begun and that it would transform the businesses like never before.

BYOD and related concepts

The concept of Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) has also come as boon to startup companies that wish to cut down on initial investments. It is a proven fact that empowering employees to work remotely and on the go increases production. Enterprise level apps with collaboration software and private storage space integration have proved to be very productive. Only recently there have been several improvements on security measures and Mobile Device Management (MDM) software. The newly evolved concepts of BYOD, such as Choose Your Own Device (CYOD) and Company-owned Personally-enabled (COPE) devices are being expected to bring about a drastic change in the use of mobile apps at the industrial level.  

Debut of wearable gadgets

However, the arrival of wearable gadgets, such as Google Glass has made business people raise their eyebrows. Apart from Google Glass, Apple too has been researching on its iWatch. While businesses are yet to make full use of the mobile trends in the society, the debut of wearable technology has instilled a fear in the minds of business people. Their fear is not without a reason, many of the technologies that were hyped did disappear even before they reached the zenith. For instance, the pager, which had a glorious debut didn’t last for long. However, the view of technology experts is very different from that of business people. Here are some of the reasons why smart mobile phones and tablets would continue to dominate in the forthcoming years.

Limitations of wearable devices

According to the technology experts, most of the wearable devices only come as an aid to smart phone and not as its competitor. In fact, the debut of wearable devices will only increase the smart phone usage, which is a good sign for the businesses that rely on mobile technologies to increase production and market their products and services. The fear of business people that the new wearable technology might make the existing mobile phone technology obsolete is a needless one. One other important reason cited by the technology experts is that all of the wearable devices in the contemporary market have much lesser features than that of standard mobile devices, such as smart phones and tablets. Many of them are still under development and that it would take a long time before many of the concepts become a reality. Businesses should view that advancement only as a complement to the existing technology. 

App developer’s dilemma

Even the mobile app development companies were stirred by the arrival of wearable technology. However, according to experts, the wearable technology will be an apt complement that will only increase the opportunities and efficiency of mobile app development. Mobile app developers, on the other hand, will have to update and train themselves to make the new technology work toward the benefit of their clients. Both businesses and app development companies should view wearable technology only as a positive change that will hasten their efforts in reaching out to the customers and not as a threat to the existing mobile technologies.

Benefits of wearable devices in the enterprise arena

In fact, technology experts have come out with suggestions for better usage of enterprise level mobile apps with wearable devices. The first and foremost advantage of wearable devices is that they make the job easier with hands free technology. Secondly, they are confident that all of the wearable gadgets will be able to seamlessly integrate with smart phones and tablets for better usability. They cite Samsung Galaxy’s smart watch and other similar gadgets including the proposed iWatch from Apple as complementing the existing mobile technology. In fact, experts feel that wearable devices would take the BYOD to the next level. Discussions on the new concept of Wear Your Own Device (WYOD) have already started emerging in the enterprise arena.

Conclusion

It is true that wearable devices are a complement to the existing smart phones and tablets. It is also true that they may evolve into independent gadgets with all of the features that are present in contemporary smart phones and tablets. However, it may take a long time before something substantial is achieved in the wearable devices. As far as businesses are concerned, it is wise to make use of contemporary technologies and trends to keep in pace with the competitors. Embracing new technologies has been the tradition of businesses and wearable devices are not an exception to this rule.