This sponsored post is produced by the Wearable World Congress.
Come meet and do business with 1,000+ leaders in wearable and IoT tech.
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Any way you flash your bling, wearables represent the ultimate disruption to so much of our lives. Whether it is on your wrist, over your eyewear, in your socks, or embedded under your skin, with wearables, it’s the most personal computing experience to date.
Sandro Olivieri, a senior manager at AT&T’s Foundry, takes it one step further, insomuch as calling the wearable marketplace the “Internet of Me.”
“If there is a center of the Internet — whether this is in a car, at the office, at home, or on their body — it’s the ‘Internet of Me,’ said Olivieri. “People are comfortable when they are using their primary device and interacting with the network.”
Most people currently consider their smartphone as their primary device. With the spike in growth of wearable devices, it remains to be seen what that “main access point” to the “Internet of Me” will be given all these new points of connection. A Pew Research Center poll of more than 1,600 device and Internet experts found 83 percent agreed wearable devices are expected to have “widespread and beneficial effects by 2025.”
Businesses are looking at the possibilities of wearables to extend their connection with customers, partners, and employees beyond the desktop, tablet, and phone.
To get an advance look at this disruptive technology, you’ll want to see it up close. Next week, the Wearable World Congress takes place on May 19 and May 20. Hundreds of major players in the wearable and IoT space — from the world’s biggest brands to the startups you haven’t heard of yet — will converge on the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco to chart the future.
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Among the topics being discussed will be transformational design and wearable technology, pioneering medicine with connected devices, IoT for cities, blending Fashion and Technology, and crowdfunding for connected devices.
Wearables, when combined with other business actions, can create some real A-ha! moments.
“I had an opportunity about eight years ago to use a PayPass-enabled wrist band to buy coffee at a MasterCard location, says Stephane Wyper, Vice President, Senior Business Leader, MasterCard Start Path. “I remember thinking that although it was a ‘cool’ experience it wasn’t necessarily superior to making the purchase via a PayPass-enabled card.”
“But what specifically piqued my interest, Wyper continues, “was when I started looking at how that same device could be used to remove the friction from other parts of my daily life, what if would also let me buy — transit tickets to get to work, to buy food at any location, and to share funds between my friends. Back then, my A-ha moment would be when that wrist band would get to the point that it could replace my wallet.”
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While wearables are one category of technology enabler that could play a role in shaping that future experience, it is still in the early days with no ‘winning strategy’ defined. However, a number of ingredients are coming together ensuring ubiquity of acceptance, and building hardware that can be scaled and people will actually want to wear.
Ultimately, supporting all forms of wearable technology to be business-enabled means exploring ways to make the consumer or enterprise experience via a wearable more secure, simpler, and more relevant.
It’s not too late to register for Wearable World Congress and learn how you can leverage wearable technology for your business — visit http://www.wwcongress.com/ for info and registration.
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