Google Glass is coming, and it’s a large target for many points of controversy.
Given the open architecture Google traditionally uses, the applications for this product will continue to cause much debate while reaching for new heights of integration and digital layover into our daily lives. Competitive wearable-technology products by the likes of Leap Motion and SixthSense, and Kickstarter-based offerings entering into this 21st century gold rush will soon flood the marketplace.
The underlying issue for business of all sizes is how this new technology will impact revenue cycles and buying trends. It’s an issue that has been ignored, surprisingly. But I believe we will see a new trend across all markets and all products, based on this emerging technology.
Prepping your business for this new tech is crucial. The crux of the matter lies in availability, from a digital perspective, to the information that is crucial to buyers. Metrics like competitive analysis, up to-the-minute availability statistics, and auction-based pricing (real-time supply and demand) must be available to the consumer or prospect in order to be accessible to the wearable tech public. The appetite for real-time info will be voracious. Consequently, relying on people, not systems, to update relevant information about products and services will be a fool’s errand.
Welcome to Tommorrowland
I live in a tourist destination, near a hub of international activity -- International Drive, in Orlando, Fla. It’s a mash-up of languages and product offerings ranging from the bizarre to the predictable. I can find them all just a few miles from my front door. I expect, in the near future, wearers of layover technology -- aka Google Glass -- will peruse products and services without ever entering the purveyor’s place of business. Attraction-queue wait times, table wait times, dinner specials, arrivals and departures of local transportation shuttles, room specials -- all types of goods and services being offered by business will be displayed digitally. From afar a prospect may be lured or qualified without ever entering the business in question.
I live in a tourist destination, near a hub of international activity -- International Drive, in Orlando, Fla. It’s a mash-up of languages and product offerings ranging from the bizarre to the predictable. I can find them all just a few miles from my front door. I expect, in the near future, wearers of layover technology -- aka Google Glass -- will peruse products and services without ever entering the purveyor’s place of business. Attraction-queue wait times, table wait times, dinner specials, arrivals and departures of local transportation shuttles, room specials -- all types of goods and services being offered by business will be displayed digitally. From afar a prospect may be lured or qualified without ever entering the business in question.
The delivery mechanism for this information will be web-based tech. Regardless of how you build your site (PHP/CSS, WordPress, Twitter Bootstrap, Dreamweaver, or Adobe Suite) all sites will end up with some sort of consumable HTML code structure. Making sure your info is consumable by a wearer-style interface will be crucial. Supplying information that is relevant and current to the user, even more so.
From movable to wearable
Currently this can be achieved by a "mobile capable” web extension -- capability that is already an issue in Google’s organic SEO ranking. But the missing link for many businesses lies in the capture of relevant sale information and the automatic updating of inventory/availability metrics to the mobile capable interface. This may entail tying in a node from a host- or hostess-stand POS (point of sale), enabling wait time information for a restaurant, actively pulling data from a booking engine for demand-rate structure (resort room pricing), demand-based pricing for retail outlets selling hard goods, or service wait times for hair and nail salons.
Currently this can be achieved by a "mobile capable” web extension -- capability that is already an issue in Google’s organic SEO ranking. But the missing link for many businesses lies in the capture of relevant sale information and the automatic updating of inventory/availability metrics to the mobile capable interface. This may entail tying in a node from a host- or hostess-stand POS (point of sale), enabling wait time information for a restaurant, actively pulling data from a booking engine for demand-rate structure (resort room pricing), demand-based pricing for retail outlets selling hard goods, or service wait times for hair and nail salons.
Traditionally a staff person provides this information to a prospect walking in the door. The prospect inquires about wait time, the hostess answers. This human-to-human interface is lost in the layover marketing world. The opportunity no longer exists. It’s replaced by a visual layover that is only visible with wearable tech.
The tourist market is a prime example of what is coming, but all markets will feel an impact. A layover tech user may get real-time competitive info by looking at a car in a showroom and seeing a list of all competitive offers within five miles. Patients may query information about drugs prescribed, related healthcare information, or wait times in a specific practice’s office. Concerned parents may "check in" on their children at daycare or find their child’s location at a family outing. The implementation of this new technology surpasses privacy concerns and digital tracking.
It will, in fact, change everything.
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