Developing apps for wearable tech has served as a great challenge for app developers, offering them access to a limited collection of tools and methodologies. In this blog, I’ll be discussing everything about Wearable Application Development technology and feedback received for the same from the industry biggies.
Also Read: jQuery Touch Application Development: A Powerful Technology For Feature-rich Apps
Wearable Tech – What exactly is Wearable Application Development Technology?
With several prominent wearable devices hitting the gadget market in the past few years, app developers have built a brand new technology that is used for creating apps which can run on these devices. This technology has been named as Wearable Tech. Popular wearable devices such as Samsung Galaxy Gear, Explorer version of Google Glass and the Pebble Smartwatch have witnessed the creation of apps that serve different purposes of regular device users. It goes without saying that wearables without apps aren’t worth a purchase.
Some key insights on Wearables
Technical similarity with the hand-held devices
Well, considering the fundamental aspects, wearables aren’t technically different from the hand-held devices.To put in simple words, a lot of technical challenges faced by hand-held devices are absolutely similar to the one encountered for the wearable devices. Some vital statistics that make handheld devices similar to wearables include: less computing power, smaller screen size and battery life.
The significance of prototyping
Well, during wearable application development process, it is crucial to follow a prototype for testing all the innovative ideas and real-life use cases. The sole reason for this being that not all wearable app development platforms are well-suited for meeting varied app development requirements.
Handling software fragmentation challenges
One of the main challenges faced by wearable app developers is software fragmentation. With an incredible count of mobile operating systems available in the market, these app developers don’t have any access to an app development platform that can be used for building apps that can run on multiple mobile platforms.
Usage dissimilarity between wearable and hand-held devices
Although wearables and handheld devices don’t show any dissimilarity when it comes to the technical aspects, the two are quite different in terms of usability. While the handheld devices display less interactive information, the wearables are known for rendering quicker interactions in addition to presenting a “glanceable” information.
Application Architecture
Architecture of a typical wearable application is bound by several hardware constraints such as battery life, screen size etc.The architectural approach of designing wearable apps is entirely different from the one followed for building handheld apps. Since the standalone applications entirely reside on the device, they actually don’t require a companion handheld application.
Also Read: 6 Tools to make JavaScript Development a Cakewalk
Similarity in terms of Notifications
One of the key similarities between different wearable and handheld app development platforms is the significant placement of notifications. Serving as an awesome means of adding wearable functionality into an existing app, notifications are a must-have feature of every wearable app development project.
A glimpse of wearable apps current state
- A highly fragmented state of the wearable apps ecosystem is the prime reason behind the existence of fewer wearable applications. With a majority of wearable devices running on different platforms, it has become difficult for app developers to create apps for the same.
- With a greater focus on developing apps for wrist-worn devices, app developers are all geared up for the wearable app market. Also, it is being believed that smart wrist wear will make up 70% of the wearable shipments over the next five years.
- Google and Apple are all set to dominate the wearable app market. The two companies are working on translating their smartphone/tablet apps into wearable apps. Google has already made its debut by launching Android Wear, an amazing platform for developing wearable applications.
- Wearable apps would take special care of health and fitness freaks. It is being forecasted that the wearable app development technology will give birth to killer apps that will fit the health and fitness category. Right from advanced health monitoring sensors and dieting apps to the medical and workout apps, wearable app developers will put in their best towards delivering apps that can meet the varying needs of the health conscious population.
- Wearable app developers will break the traditional model of extending smartphone/tablet experiences. To put in simple words, wearable app developers will be engaged in developing apps that would allow users to perform activities that can’t be undertaken with the help of any other smartphone app. One of the finest examples of wearable apps designed for Android users is the Allthecooks Google Glass app, which allows users to get indulged in hands-free cooking while keeping the recipe instructions at the eye-level.
A quick peep into the future of Wearable Apps
Predicting the future of wearable apps at this stage is a bit early. Considering the ease of use for prototyping, all we can do is simply hope that the wearable app development tools will improve in the forthcoming years. We also hope to witness the introduction of cross-platform development tools, which will serve handy for developing cross-platform compatible wearable apps. And not to forget, we’re even eager to see how the app development market settles down after encountering a flood of wearable apps, being released on a regular basis.
Final Words
The wearable realm is surely going to emerge as a ‘pleasant surprise’ for everyone who’s in love with apps. Here’s hoping the above post would’ve helped you learn a lot about wearable app development and its varied pros.
If you know of any other detail pertaining to Wearable App Development that you’d like to share with the readers, please don’t hesitate in using the comments box provided right under this post. I’d also love to hear your feedback on the above write-up.
About Author:
Addison Cohen is a tech savvy and application programmer guy ,who is one of best hire iphone programmers and presently devoting his services to one of the growing iphone application development services.
Still relevant, thanks for your blog post. Well, in 2017 we have now Aidlab – a wearable, personal assistant that simplifies diving into IoT/Wearable world with dozens of tutorials and examples!