If recent patterns are any indication, smart watches are nowhere close to slowing down in either sales or sophistication. The proof is in the pudding: 6.8 million were sold in 2014, which is more than double the 3 million sold in 2013. With the release of the long prophesied Apple Watch just two short weeks ago, 2015 is shaping up to be a great year for the platform; in fact, 957,000 Apple Watches have been sold thus far. What does this mean for advertisers and developers? Much like the increase of mobile over the past decade, the smart watch platform presents both a host of new design challenges and intriguing opportunities to engage with consumers.
How can smart watches be used to sell homes? The Pilot Group Company detailed one clever possibility. Imagine you’re out for a walk, and your watch sends you an alert: a home around the corner fits your price range and specifications. With a simple voice command, your watch guides you to the house. You love what you see and decide you’d like to book an appointment. With another simple voice command, your watch sends an alert to the agent who can then contact you directly. Now imagine that same experience applied to future communities and new builds. That’s the seamless experience that the platform has the potential to offer homebuyers.
It doesn’t have to stop there either.
With the built in components that monitor health and vitals, there is the possibility of using your emotions to not only gauge your reaction to and automatically act on homes, but also to build up a profile based on your emotional response to specific elements within a home. Imagine if your physiological reaction to children at a park helped an application ascertain that you’re considering children, and thus look for homes with room to grow. Imagine if increased agitation towards loud music at night helped an application to steer clear of homes close to university housing. This is the kind of next level development that is coming down the pipeline.
Apple is estimating that they’ll be shipping 2.3 million watches in 2015 – and that’s just one maker, and one watch. With the smart watch user base rapidly growing, it’ll be exciting to see the innovative applications that will start to pop up over the next year, and how brands begin to capitalize.
JohnAmardeil.com 