Apple Watch: The war for the wrist and how you can win it.
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In the mid-nineties when it was all about getting the attention of consumers for billboards, terms like “attention economy” and “war for the eyeballs” arose. Today, through products like the Apple Watch, the meaning of these terms will change indefinitely.
I don’t mean to write another test review about the Apple Watch. Everyone interested has probably at this point realized what its capabilities are and are not. But, the Apple Watch offers the potential for users to communicate on a previously untouchable level of intimacy. This is exactly where it will get interesting for companies and their marketing strategies.
I’ve read tech blogs and kept track of developments with child-like wonder from the day that I used my first computer. Meanwhile, I am sitting in a digital agency that specializes in mobile service design in Berlin and I devote myself to these interests for a living. Like Mark Zuckerberg once said, “Inventing a job is better than finding one”, meaning “Do what you love and you will never have to work a day in your life.”
The most meaningful developments in the last two decades are undoubtedly the mass utilization of the internet as well as the mobilization of it. The trend towards the digital nomads allows the use of more and more mobile devices with wearables being the last logical step forward. It feels like advertising online has existed forever, or at least since the end of the ARPA-only phase.
1. Don’t underestimate the Apple Watch
As early as last year with the availability of Android Wear, Google has put a system software for wearables on the market, but only sold around 720.000 devices in 2014. Because of this, Apple’s entry into this market was even more highly anticipated. According to combined projections, Apple has been able to sell more than 2.3 million devices — becoming the market leader for wearables literally overnight. A product that is able to achieve something like this, as well as communicating with its users on such an intimate level, should be integrated into every company’s marketing strategy. Furthermore, the Apple Watch brings a lot of attention to smart watches in general, consequently improving the number of competitor sales.
I had the privilege of receiving the Apple Watch during its first release and I was able to test it immediately. Just as expected (and not different with Android Wear), It’s all about the push! The watch functions as the companion for the iPhone and is not of much use without it. For now, it just delivers push notifications from the iPhone to the wrist which sounds rather lackluster, but it really is not. Of course, we are now talking about “first world problems”, but the gain in comfort is enormous once you become accustomed to it. I initially thought it’s just a bit marketing talk, but I now have to confirm that the Apple Watch really is the most personal device that Apple has ever put on the market. Not only because of the nearly countless possibilities to combine the watch and the wristbands, but also because a watch on your wrist is far more intimate than the smartphone in your pocket. Wearing something on the body is more intimate than having something with you. The fact that it almost feels natural leads to the conclusion that in the near future, the interaction with the wrist will be as natural and organic as breathing, eating and sleeping.
2. Choose your notifications wisely!
But what does that mean for push notifications? Back then when Microsoft started to bother their Xbox users with advertisements or when Amazon’s Kindle was available for a cheaper price with the exception that users were receiving personalized ads, the outcry was immense. Now with Apple’s decision to allow advertisements in their push notifications there were almost no reactions.
Smart watches are the beginning of a turnaround regarding the expectations of users. Until now, an application would function as soon as the user opens it, but with a smart watch an application should — in the best case — be noted by its users for being proactive and sensitive to context. Usually, I don’t actively open an application on my watch, but rather only when I am prompted to. The user of a smart watch is usually more passive than the user of a smartphone. Consequently, the trend clearly shifts from a pull-driven user experience towards a push-driven user experience.
Almost every app sends push notifications already, and the wave of transferring notifications to the Apple Watch has only just begun. We’ve already grown used to meaningless information from free-to-play offers or breaking news and have accepted them even if we don’t necessarily like them. Many of us don’t feel bothered enough to turn them off. That all changes with the intimacy of the Apple Watch and is, at the same time, the first tripping hazard for every company that wants to send push notifications to the watch: On a system that almost only relies on push notifications, the developer cannot inform the app user that their application is only pushing meaningful information. Once the user turns the notifications off, it is almost impossible to get them to turn the notifications back on. As Uncle Ben from Spiderman once said, “With great power comes great responsibility”. If your application is installed, you certainly have the attention of the users. After all, your notification is directly on their wrist, although this love may come to a quick end if you annoy them. So don’t annoy them.
If you are used to all the web and app offers crying for attention but deactivated 8 out of 10 apps that are sending notifications to your watch it shows how unsure developers act on this new terrain.
3. Say it, but say it in context.
At this point, there are only a few apps that exhaust all the possibilities of the watch and the corresponding Software Development Kit (Watch Kit). There are a lot of possible triggers for notifications that enable the application to inform the user of its relevance at the time. With Google Now, Google has already run some field studies: Every morning I’m notified about how long it will take me to get to work with my preferred means of transport. But, of course, it is still capable of improvement and app developers could choose from a number of triggers such as location, time, calendar dates, traffic data, weather data or social recommendations (“your friend XY really liked this restaurant!”). In practice, I still miss these actions. Context is king! If you feel the need to notify your users over your application, then do it in context with something. No one wants to be informed about the latest shopping offers at two o’clock in the morning.
4. Be creative with data
In order to offer sensitive context to users, my wish for the future is that company developers will use the data in a more creative way, applying the possibilities of big data and already collected data usefully. It seems to me like everyone is already collecting enough data. The next step is to think about which form of data would be required for a progressive implementation and how to get it. Collecting data, connecting data and, through applications that benefit from that, offering an added value to the users.
5. You need a real and slim use case!
With most of the apps, I came to the conclusion that the developers invested a lot of hard work in order to downscale their offers to fit on the watch. And then there are some examples where I had the opposite impression — including big players like Instagram. Excuse me, but it just doesn’t make any sense to show pictures on a device so small. In my opinion, the functionality for the watch should have been reduced to a feedback channel for the user’s own posts, but maybe it’s just me. If you want to offer an app for the Apple Watch (or the competition) just to say that you have an app for the Apple watch, then don’t do it. Think before you act.
Just as television screens, smartphone screens get increasingly bigger — to the advantage of companies since with every new device generation, more buttons are able to fit into the user experience. Now here is a device with a small screen that may seem anachronistic, but is only logical with a watch. Anyone who develops for the watch has to face the old challenges of working with little space — and, under no circumstances should a corporate identity be prioritized over the guidelines. After all, anyone who pushes these guidelines will not be allowed to go through the Apple Store at all.
I, as the user, have to find my way around on the small screen of the Apple Watch and as much as I am positively surprised at how precise I am able to navigate with the crown, I do not feel the need to play around with it. This also leads to the finding that the battery of the Apple Watch lasts longer than originally feared — at the end of the day I usually have 30–45% of the battery left until I charge it again for the next day. Applications that force me to tap more than I am willing to are left behind and are only used without an alternative. While it wasn’t wrong on smartphones for users to spend time with the app, it’s quite the contrary with smart watches where less is more. The app should be slim and should hold only one, almost perfect, use case. The number of interactions that are necessary for the app to serve a purpose should be countable on one hand — ideally the app allows interactions only through push notifications.
I am cautiously optimistic that many of these things will improve until the Apple Watch is generally accepted, which is likely to be in the second or third release.
Jakob Fuchs works in Research & Development for DAYONE, a digital agency based in Berlin specializing in mobile service design.
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