In 2007 Apple introduced the iPhone. It not only revolutionized the smart phone industry, but it also ushered in an entirely new user experience paradigm, touch gestures. Since then, touch has become a standard for how we interact with devices from phones, to computers, and even right within the dashboards of today’s automobiles.
Touch technology brought consumers and technology closer than ever. Your phone became an extension of your personal and professional life. Now, we are seeing the emergence of the next evolution in user experience – wearable devices. Analyst firm IDC suggests that wearable devices will grow by 80% YOY over the next 4 years, with 112 million units shipped in 2018. That’s about a third of the population of the United States of America!
Here at Salesforce, we see the huge potential of wearables to transform the world of applications. My phone will beep at me less, replaced by silent nudges on my watch. Doors will open securely but without a touch. Brands will know who I am, what I like, and cater to my particular preferences (ice in the water, please). Tomorrow will bring radically new technology experiences and how we interact with businesses and customers. Today, we announced Salesforce Wear, the industry’s first initiative for wearable computing in the enterprise. For developers, we have also open-sourced a Salesforce Wear Developer Pack.
The Salesforce Wear Developer Pack is a collection of 6 open-source starter apps to help developers design and build wearable apps that connect to the Salesforce1 Platform. We’ve built reference apps for Google Glass, Android Wear, Samsung Gear 2, Myo, Nymi and Pebble Watch. Using the Salesforce1 APIs and trusted identity to access customer information, these sample apps, and the code behind them, showcase how developers can build killer enterprise apps for wearable devices.
As one of the 1.5 million developers on the Salesforce1 Platform, you are in the frontline of this wearable revolution. We wanted to do some of the early work, learning how these platforms work, so you can go faster and invent incredible new wearable apps connected to the Salesforce1 platform. We found a huge variation in programming models, UX primitives and security & identity flows. These technologies are early but they are coming fast, and we want our developer community to be first in the enterprise putting them to work!
Here’s what’s provided in the Salesforce Wear Developer Pack:
Google Glass
The Wear Pack for Google Glass includes an open-source inspection app that walks field technicians through a step-by-step inspection process.
//www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQGOAnHGE0k
Android Wear
The Wear Pack for Android Wear includes an open-source discount approval app. The manager can swipe to reveal additional information about the approval request and then approve or reject discounts directly from the watch.
//www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrjYEvn9sxE
Thalmic Myo
The Wear Pack for Myo includes an open-source app for a surgery use case.The app provides a surgeon with an interactive 3D simulation of a patient’s medical information. The surgeon can review patient history stored in Salesforce and navigate a 3D skeleton with hand gestures.
//www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpe6FxJpUiQ
Samsung Gear 2
The Wear Pack for Samsung Gear 2 includes an open-source “Today” app that lets users see their Salesforce events in a quick, easily digestible format on the watch.
//www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2JdmMkw4KI
Bionym Nymi
The Wear Pack for Nymi includes an open-source app that helps a Hotel provide a highly personalized service experience to their high-value customers.
//www.youtube.com/watch?v=whRkufQ4mlM
Pebble Smartwatch
The Wear Pack for Pebble includes an open-source app that displays key summary metrics from up to three Salesforce Dashboards or Reports.
//www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfvI2XEFWbs
With the launch of the Salesforce Wear initiative, and the Salesforce Developer Wear Pack, today is just the begining of unlocking the Internet of Customers. The sample apps we’ve provided are a great jumping off point for your own imagination. From all of us here at Salesforce, we are incredibly excited to see what sort of awesome wearable apps you create!