iWatch and Ecosystems

February 5, 2014

There is much anticipation and excitement around a possible iWatch from Apple.

iWatch and other Wearables

This Fast Company article adds several interesting dimensions to the debate, such as privacy, data security, etc, and whether Apple will become a platform provider for others to build applications on.

Interesting also is the huge focus on personal fitness data and the impact that could have on healthcare.

Wearables are indeed an interesting multi-dimensional opportunity space. The proximity to the wearer’s body and therefore the ability to integrate sensors, the idea of the accessory and its potential for fashion, the notion of an alternate approach to the mobile device – a replacement or an extension of the current mobile device and so on.

There is much happening in this space and it is too early to say how this will shape up. It is indeed interesting to see how much focus there is on lifestyle and fitness. I however, do not yet see a completeness of vision from a user’s perspective.

In this context, I wanted to reflect a little on Apple as a value-provider. I have seen many opinions on Apple and the iWatch – the tenor of most of these seem to be from consumer life-style perspectives – “If you do not give me a gadget that amuses me, you are not much of an innovator!”

By now I think it should be clear to anyone in the technology innovation space, that while Apple engineers and designs beautiful devices, it is much more than a device company. This too has been well-documented – it is often a later entrant and is much more an ecosystem builder rather than just a device vendor.

When it can build a radically different and meaningful ecosystem around home entertainment, it will bring out a TV – when it can reshape the retail experience, it will be there with the entire ecosystem of commerce – not just with a gizmo or a gadget.

Similarly, when the value ecosystem of wearables goes beyond the siloed, health, music, communication worlds into one where it can integrate a meaningful totality for the user, it will introduce the iWatch.

Perhaps in that vision there are technical challenges it has not yet surmounted – but that should not lead us to question its ability to innovate as some ‘gurus’ are eager to do.

The iWatch experience will be centered around a new node in the human digital experience, not some fragmented experience of personal health data, but a seamless integration not only of data with meaning but with the ecosystem of other devices.The issues of data privacy are pertinent but not restricted to Apple alone.

When there is that clarity of an architecture for fluid and seamless integration of experience, and the absolute clarity of a non-superfluous device and a new member of the personal digital ecosystem, there will be an iWatch. In the future this device could cannibalize current incumbents, but it will be done gracefully.

Perhaps that device will indeed create an open platform for others to build applications on. Those applications will again be an important component of the total value proposition.

It is for that completeness of vision that I subscribe to the platform that this company consistently creates. It demands for a larger understanding and comprehension of the idea of design – when you experience it, you know what that is.