Mobile Wearable Platforms - Gear 2, Android Wear, Apple Watch

Featured App:

SPORT Weather (For Gear 2) - First Round Winner and finalist for Round 2 of the $1.25 million Samsung Gear App Challenge (http://www.mlive.com/business/ann-arbor/index.ssf/2014/09/ann_arbor-developed_app_in_the.html): http://www.mlive.com/business/ann-arbor/index.ssf/2014/09/ann_arbor-developed_app_in_the.html

SPORT Weather is a wearable app focused on one simple thing, letting you know when it is going to rain. The app is based on UX research about what people really want from weather data and is called SPORT Weather ( http://www.sportweather.com/ ). It cuts through all the noise and simply tells you when it is going to rain next, down to the minute.

Presentation Description:

It was 2007. Apple and Steve Jobs were getting shredded in the press for coming out with this computer phone that was overpriced in a highly competitive "smartphone" market dominated by Blackberry, Nokia, and other companies you may have trouble recollecting by now. Utter failure was predicted. Who would buy such a thing with so many other smartphones available on the market? We all know what happened after that.

Fast forward to 2014. The next major release of the Samsung smart watches, Gear 2, comes out with significant functionality and the start of a large global developer ecosystem in the works. Android Wear is also announced. Utter failure is once again predicted. Who would buy a $300 smart device that does less than your smartphone when you have your smartphone in your pocket? Who even wears watches any more? Yet inventory for the Gear 2 continues to sell out at most of the major retailers and Android Wear and Apple Watch are hot on the heels of the Gear 2 platform with their own competitive releases. What will happen next?

Keith Bourne, Mobile Strategist for Arbormoon Software, will present the current state of the wearable market, including coverage of three major platforms to consider, Gear 2/Tizen, Android Wear, and Apple Watch. And then given that information, we will speculate on where the market is going and why we think the next two to four years in the wearable world will rival the past two evolutionary cycles of computing (web and mobile). And of course, it isn't just about watches, this represents an entire ecosystem of embedded devices that reaches into the physical world in a variety of ways. Physical world products, embedded systems, hmm, thats something we know a lot about in Southeast Michigan, isn't it?

Don't be intimidated by the tech if you aren't a developer! While we will cover some of the technical aspects, there will be enough non-technical content for anyone interested in the future of these platforms to join and learn a lot!

About the Presenter:

Keith Bourne - Keith is Senior Mobile Strategist at Arbormoon Software, Inc. With his mobile experiences dating back to the 90’s, Keith is one of the most experienced mobile strategy professionals in the field. Keith speaks often and has been published through articles, papers, and interviews on many mobile strategy related topics. Keith is currently working on Gear 2 , Android Wear, and Apple Watch projects, both as a developer and a strategist, and building on his experience across numerous mobile projects in a wide variety of industries and applications (marketing, operations, supply chain management, etc). Keith is a founding board member of the Mobile Technology Association of Michigan (MTAM) and co-founder of multiple network groups, including the Michigan chapter of Mobile Monday, which has grown to thousands of members and 4 chapters across the state of Michigan.