The company is betting that companies will be looking to wearables and has unveiled its developer pack.
At a time in which wearable technology is drumming up a great deal of controversy, with fitness trackers going mainstream, but while augmented reality headsets such as Google Glass are drawing criticism and nicknames for wearers such as “glassholes”, Salesforce is betting that this will be the tech of the near future for businesses and has now released its Wear Developer Pack.
The hope is that developers will use it in order to build apps and platforms for business purposes.
Salesforce is hoping that developers will use its open source Wear Developer Pack software in order to build systems with customer service, CRM, and a number of other types of business practice in mind. This tech will function with wearable technology devices such as web connected augmented reality glasses, smartwatches, and other mobile gadgets of this nature, and it will integrate them with the company databases that are already sitting on its platform.
While some are calling this wearable technology move an exciting one, others see a considerable risk.
At the moment, the primary focus is on wearables such as smartwatches and AR glasses. While there are many forms of smart clothing that have been unveiled and that are making their way onto the market, those are primarily meant for consumer use at the moment. That said, it is not yet clear whether the business world really is ready for wearables, nor has a solid opinion been collected that would suggest that they are or are not looking to work those gadgets into their operations.
That hasn’t stopped Salesforce, which has decided to make a considerable investment into enterprise wearable tech in order to grab hold of the first mover advantage within this category. The company feels confident that this market will be exploding over the next few years and it wants to make sure that its foundation is well built by the time that happens.
According to the Salesforce senior vice president of emerging technologies, Daniel Debow, “We saw this opportunity,” and said about wearable technology “How can you link these to marketing operations? How can you link these to business operations?”
Recent studies and reports are adding to a growing body of evidence that indicates that people aren’t wild about wearables, yet.
Wearable tech may be one of the fastest growing mobile device categories, but at the moment, the popularity appears to be notably greater among the companies actually developing these gadgets than among consumers who are buying them.
Not only are people not necessarily buying wearables as fast as they’re being produced, but they’re judging those who do.
Some wearable tech has a better reputation than other forms. For example, fitness trackers seem to have been broadly accepted by consumers, as a whole, but at the same time, there are other forms that are bringing about far less love. For example, while spotting a smartwatch on someone’s wrist may generate a great deal of interest and conversation, at the moment, Google Glass and other augmented reality headsets seem to label a wearer as someone much less likeable.
The opinion that consumers have about wearable tech doesn’t seem to have anything to do with its usefulness.
To go back to the Google Glass example, an owner of these wearable devices can take advantage of a very high quality gadget that can be operated by voice command and that brings many of the features that can be found on a smartphone into a hands-free environment. However, despite the fact that it is very handy, people who use the device have been labeled “Glassholes” and are essentially thought of as people who are trying to declare their own self-worth by throwing their money into the latest technology.
A digital research firm called L2 recently released a report that pointed out that while 75 percent of consumers are aware of what wearable tech actually is, only 9 percent have any desire to actually purchase and own one. Even smaller is the 2 percent group that actually owns one of these mobile devices. The report showed that among those who were surveyed, 52 percent felt that the best location for wearables to be worn is on the wrist. Twenty four percent said that some place on the arm was best, and only 5 percent felt that headbands or other head-mounted displays were ideal – even in the form of eyeglasses or contact lenses. Clearly, the design of these products has a long way to go before consumers accept them – and their wearers – more broadly.
