Categorising wearables
Wearables are here to stay. They are now better designed and more alike the accessories we currently wear - the Google glass looks like a regular pair of glasses, the Motorola 360 looks like any other regular watch.
Let’s try to categorise wearables based on their value propositions.
Category 1. Peace of mind: Valert, Levana.
These wearables bank on the peace of mind outcome. These are unique in the sense that the buyer seldom wears the product. It is usually worn by a relative of the buyer such as an elder person or an infant. For this category of wearables, consumers are willing to use them even though they do not provide immediate outcomes. Interactions between the device and the consumer are few. There could be many false alarms and in this particular category of wearables the consumers are willing to put up with a few false alarms as it gives them a sense of reassurance that the product is working as intended.
Category 2. Context augmenters: Google Wear devices such as Moto 360, Galaxy Gear, Google Glass
For these wearables, users want to see the right information in the right context. These wearables face the time to first “Aha” problem. Consumers will use the wearable only if the time to the first “aha’ moment is less. Interactions with these wearables are often. They usually require a lot of data about the user in order for them to be contextually apt. Google does so by using the plethora of user data it already has.
Category 3. Life analytics: Nike Fuel band
These wearables track data and present it in a manner suitable for consumption such as easy to comprehend graphs. They give us insightful takeaways about how effectively we are performing our daily functions. These wearables also face the time for the first “aha” problem. What they try doing to solve this is to either gamify the data or present the data in relation to peers of the consumer.
Category 2 products are arguably more coveted. Since they have plenty of touch points with the consumers, they have a lot of opportunity to monetize via ads.
However, for a category 2—Context augmenter—product, to provide contextual information, it requires a lot of data and to get a lot of data, the user should use it. This presents a chicken and egg problem.
Google and Apple have their ecosystems to import data from and make their wearables contextually apt from the word go.
A strategy can be to first release category 1 products and in the process collect a lot of information. Consumers will use it even through there aren’t immediate outcomes because of the ‘Peace of Mind’ factor. Once enough data is collected, category 2 products can be planned.
Although they can be numerous other categorisations based on different value propositions, the above categories can serve as a reference for planning the positioning of a new wearable product.