Apple gave consumers and business owners a taste of its new smartwatch on Monday. The Apple Watch, due out in April, will sync up with smartphone-based apps and allow the masses to conduct more tasks from their wrists—which may be of special interest to business owners and their employees.
Apple announced that “thousands” of new apps for the AppleWatch are in development, and while it may be getting a lot of buzz currently, opportunities in the smartwatch app business aren't necessarily limited to just one corporation or one product.
While the vast majority of smartwatch apps are geared to consumers, Ramon Llamas, research manager for wearables, mobile phones and smartphones at IDC, says he expects that more companies will begin rolling out smartwatch apps for enterprises as more managers and workers see value in them.
According to Llamas, who authored the IDC's recent Worldwide Wearable Computing Device 2014-2018 Forecast and Analysis, 88 percent of app developers are interested in building applications specific to business, and 75 percent of IT decision makers believe that apps for business will become a priority. “We’re still at day zero when it comes to wearables,” Llamas says.
Here’s a look at a few of the newest and emerging smartwatch apps geared to businesses:
BetterWorks: Arriving this summer for Apple Watch, this app will let employers track worker performance. (The smartwatch app will be an extension of the app already available on smartphones.) Businesses can set a goal for each employee and the app will allow workers and managers to monitor their progress. An employee’s goal might be anything from redesigning the company website to bringing in $1 million in new sales. “The real product metaphor for me is: FitBit for Work,” BetterWorks founder Kris Duggan told Wired.
Salesforce: The popular enterprise-management platform rolled out two new apps for Apple Watch on Monday, including Salesforce Analytics Cloud and Salesforce1. It already offers apps through its Salesforce Wear developer platform for Samsung’s Galaxy Gear and the Pebble smartwatches that allow users to use their watch to perform some Salesforce-related tasks
Evernote: The popular smartphone app has a smartwatch app for Pebble and Samsung smartwatches that lets users reviews all their notes and checklists.
The Apple Watch launch is sure to usher in an era of many more smartwatch apps—and many of those will have potential uses for business owners. It remains to be seen, however, which apps will gain the most traction in the business world.
Read more articles on technology.
Photo: Getty Images