The rapid growth in the popularity of wearable devices has resulted in their adoption by businesses. Consumers are keen to embrace them because of the convenience and accessibility they offer, which is even beyond the mobile devices. For the very obvious reasons, businesses visualize them as a major opportunity that they can leverage for delivering superlative customer experiences. If you are planning to collaborate with a wearable app development company to invest in such an app, you must know the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead. Let us highlight them for you so that you can make an informed decision for your business.
The Challenges Of Wearable App Development
Wearable technologies are complex as you can expect them to be. After all, a great deal of innovation would be needed to empower a small device with all the amazing functionalities that wearable apps render. It is imperative for developers to come across certain challenges while developing these apps. Some of them are listed as follows:
Market Viability: Even before you invest in wearable app development, you need to understand its viability in terms of long-term business returns and benefits. Is the app expected to be embraced by an optimal number of consumers? Does it offer distinct features that will ensure a good reach and stickiness? Is there an alternative app that competes with this one? Unless the project is viable enough, you should not invest your marketing budget in it.
Design: Another challenge that you may come across is related to design because nothing but a minimalistic design one will work. Heavy designs with too many elements and effects are not feasible for these apps because the screen size of wearable devices is limited. Moreover, heavy designs may result in slow loading speed and heavy apps. The best way to resolve this challenge is by availing professional mobile design services from a provider that specializes in wearable apps.
User Interface: Wearable apps that do not give a native feel to the users are not likely to keep them engaged. Once again, the smaller screen size makes it tricky to have features, many of which are essential to a good UI and navigation. Developers need to focus on micro-moments for rendering a better user experience.
Keeping pace with the latest features: As user expectations, increase and app trends change, your app needs to have the latest features to match both. Adding new features to a wearable app or revamping it is far more complicated as compared to doing the same for a conventional mobile app, which is another key challenge for businesses planning to go the wearable way.
Multiple platforms: The success of a wearable app greatly depends on its availability across multiple platforms. Developers and businesses, therefore, cannot confine themselves to either Android and iOS but have to think beyond. In fact, they need to create apps that are capable of running seamlessly across diverse platforms.
Limited impact on battery life: Another challenge that you must be conscious about is the app’s impact on the battery life of the device. After all, you cannot expect the user to charge their devices repeatedly while using the wearable app. The idea is to build one that is battery-friendly because users will not stick to ones that drain the battery rapidly.
Need for faster-to-market apps: You cannot expect your wearable app to succeed unless you have something distinctive to offer and that too before the competitors come up with a similar one. Getting a well-tested app with the right features and faster to market is definitely a big challenge that a business would need to overcome while launching a wearable app.
Fragmentation: The issue of fragmentation can be another hindrance that you may come across. Most wearable devices do not have cross-platform compatibility, which puts them at the risk of fragmentation. This can elevate the cost of app development and you may end up spending more than expected.
Protocols and APIs: The absence of protocols and API standards can make a wearable app futile on operations. Developers need to be updated with the latest API so that they can resolve this compatibility issue effectively.
Privacy and data security: With the increasing incidents of data breaches and implementation of regulatory compliance, privacy, and data security have become a concern for businesses in all contexts including wearable app development. Developers need to pay due attention to this challenge and take the right steps to strengthen the app’s security.
Tethered devices: Wearable technology is not solely dependent on the wearable devices but also relies on larger ones such as smartphones and tablets for that complete usage of app features. The app will stop functioning for the wearable device if the battery of the larger one dies. Similarly, the user has to stay in range for using wearables connected with Bluetooth devices.
It’s not just about challenges- There are opportunities as well!
While the challenges related to wearable apps are massive, the opportunities they bring for businesses are equally humongous. Whether it is about healthcare, travel, hospitality, retail, education, or any other industry vertical, these apps are capable of driving immense growth through better user experiences. Here is an overview of the opportunities presented by wearable apps.
Innovative experiences that drive customer satisfaction: Primarily wearable apps serve innovation in customer experiences. For example, fitness bands can be used for collecting the vital stats of the wearer in real-time and knowing their current health status.
Enhanced service quality: Beyond just improving customer experiences, these apps also enable businesses to enhance their service quality. Consider the example of patient data being transferred to the hospital directly when wearables record fluctuations in their vital stats.
Collection of customer data: Besides enhancing customer experiences, wearable apps can be used to collect genuine and accurate customer data. Businesses can leverage the data to gain valuable insights that empower them for better decision-making.
Read also: The Banking Sector Is Gearing Up For The Wearable Revolution
Better training through wearables: Advanced wearable devices such as the AR-powered Google Glass makes a useful way of providing simulative training to the workers. They also enable the tracking of employees and assets within a large plant or facility.
Competitive advantage: By investing in wearable technologies, businesses can gain a competitive advantage because their competitors may already have one. Staying behind in the race may cause them to lose a massive customer base.
How to ensure that your business is able to secure these opportunities?
Overcoming the challenges related to wearable app development and leveraging the opportunities that these apps bring requires a great deal of smart thinking. The best approach would be to engage an app development company that has ample experience with wearable technologies. Mobibiz is a leading name in the industry and offers top-rated wearable app development services for diverse business requirements. We specialize in both Android and iOS platforms as well. A seasoned team of app experts on board makes us capable of delivering innovative app solutions that are perfectly tailored to specific business needs. Share your requirements with us and get ready to open new opportunities for your business with a powerful wearable app.
