These are the Friday “High Five” stories in the digital product innovation space during the week of 4/23/2016 to 4/29/2016 we noticed were trending.
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1) How IoT Builds Brands
If you want to see success for your business in the next several years, your best bet is to incorporate IoT into your strategy. The Internet of Things is all about engaging with your customers and generating data from those engagements so you can continually improve your customers’ experiences.
Your customers of the future will rely on brand engagement and personalizations to make product decisions. To connect with these customers, your business must participate in this growing, popular approach.
With IoT adoption, your business will give consumers a way to shop with a company they feel connected with, and you as a company will better understand them as individuals with personalized needs.
Are you ready to build your own IoT presence? Contact us today to discuss your ideas, and we’ll create something amazing together.
2) Why Smart Watches Need Bots
In March, we heard about Microsoft’s bot platform. Earlier this month, we heard about Facebook’s bot platform. We now have bots for computer programs and bots for mobile. We even have bots for IoT, such as with Amazon’s Alexa program.
The next platform for bot development is clearly in the wearables space. We know that wearables have been great for health and fitness, but there’s potential for so much more.
The basic premise for applying bots to wearables is this:
Relying on multiple smartphone apps to run a wearable device causes “app fatigue,” which causes the wearable device to have a usability problem. If businesses were to build a bot for wearables, it would eliminate the struggle between software and hardware.
“What if you could eliminate the software component and integrate the hardware with a bot? You could get a simple message that you’ve hit your workout goal or that you need to take a few extra steps. No more app fatigue.” – Adam Lawrence, Founder of BotPages
Build a bot for wearable devices and you’ll be an innovator in the industry. This will give you an edge as competition will be low. At Stuzo, we build digital products for wearable devices. Contact us today to set up a consultation, and you’ll see just how effective this approach can be.
3) Virtual Reality as a Business Opportunity
Does your business have a strategy in place for building your own virtual reality presence? Or, do you still doubt whether this can help you achieve your business goals?
According to some predictions, the virtual reality market will grow its worth to $150 billion within four years. It’s expected that this estimate will continue to increase if business adoption grows.
While it is still unclear how businesses can use VR, this is your time to find out. The future of virtual reality business opportunities looks bright, according to leaders in the industry, including Jason Paul of Nvidia:
“VR is going to touch every industry from gaming to automotive to entertainment, and we’re focused on helping build the ecosystem and deliver performance.”
To give you an idea of how virtual reality is already making an impact, this is a list of some of the companies already using it:
- Ford and Audi of the automotive industry
- UCLA of the medical industry
- Sotheby’s International Realty of the realty industry
- Carnival of the vacation / entertainment industry
- Marriott of the hospitality industry
- The Line of the retail industry
As you can see from the above list, businesses of all kinds of industries can use virtual reality one way or another. It doesn’t have to be a sales technique, although that is the most common approach. Your business can also benefit from using it internally. It all depends on your business needs and goals.
Do you want to make an impact in the virtual reality industry? Contact us today to discuss what you want to create for your business, and we’ll carve you a place in the industry.
4) Looking at Mobile App Micro-Moments
Mobile app development is a growing industry which has yet to reach its peak. There’s still much more businesses can do to make their presence work, even with the crowded marketplace.
It’s simply a matter of your approach.
“To satisfy the needs of mobile users, you need to optimize your mobile experience to match a user’s needs and behaviors in the context of how they’ll most likely be using your mobile app or site.” – Kimber Johnson of ASPEN app design
In today’s mobile environment, the most important factors your business should keep in mind are:
- Make it relevant
- Make it personalized
- Make it simple
- Make it seamless
When analyzing the need and effectiveness of mobile apps for business, you should keep in mind these three micro-moment areas:
- Understand customer intent.
- Pay attention to context.
- Provide a seamless customer journey.
Does your business have a mobile presence yet? We can build a mobile app that provides all of the above to give you the results you’re looking for. You’ll see your engagement rise and loyalty grow when you build a mobile app for your customers. Contact us today to learn more.
5) New Mobile Wallet Competitor to Hit the Market
You’ve probably heard of the different mobile payments platforms. Various companies are competing for the top spot in this industry.
Soon, we’ll have a new player: Xiaomi. This Chinese manufacturer is developing its own form of mobile wallet, which is expected to debut soon, according to the South China Morning Post. Xiaomi will be co-designing a mobile wallet with China UnionPay, giving them their own piece of the payments marketplace.
In China, mobile payments are thriving as an increasingly popular marketplace. It’s only a matter of time before this popularity expands around the world.
Business Insider created a report about the current state of mobile payments, which outlines some key, convincing statistics. Although mobile payments has struggled the past couple years, the report indicates the platform use will grow rapidly by 2019.
Does your business want to take part in mobile payments? Perhaps your business could benefit from your own mobile app. We can build an app that provides mobile payments or simply maintains brand loyalty. Our expertise in mobile app development has helped Fortune 500 companies with their own business goals, so contact us today to schedule a meeting to discuss this opportunity for your business.
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You now know the five trending topics of this week. What will you do next?
Our suggestion:
Contact us today. We have expertise in mobile apps, IoT, wearables and more. We strive to be innovators with new technologies, so we already have experience with the bot platforms, particularly with Facebook Messenger. We’re a digital product innovation company dedicated to companies such as yours, helping you accelerate your business.
