CIO Asia: Cognizant’s Vice President of Mobility Examines the Potential of Wearable Technology in the Fast-Growing APAC Mobile Market

“At present, Asia Pacific (APAC) makes up for half of the world's mobile subscribers, and will remain one of the fastest growing mobile markets through 2020 and beyond,” writes Sowri S. Krishnan. “The region is fast becoming a powerhouse in driving the mobile sector globally”. Excerpts:

“The region’s high mobile and smartphone penetration rates dictate a paradigm technology shift. The mobile phenomenon is further propelled by social, mobile, analytics and cloud (SMAC) technologies, which is changing how people, organizations and devices interact. Naturally, this extends to other forms of mobile technology such as wearables and the enterprise wearables market is potentially huge.

Smartphones and tablets were the catalysts that steered the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) movement in the workplace, and now, applications and services will be the fuel to drive the wearable technology fire.

The wearable technology trend is mainly driven by people’s desires to simplify their lives—by consolidating and analyzing data from various sources to better interpret the world around them and provide contextual insights.

Wearables range from smart glasses and smart watches, to activity trackers and more, but the key in this transformation is usability in the workplace.

Wearable technology can become bigger and better with augmented reality. In the near future, augmented reality is also expected to usher in new ways for businesses and industry processes such as improved asset utilization, process efficiency, productivity, cost savings and revenues. Mobile and connected devices can help boost efficiency for those in-field services.

With the buzz around wearables, organizations must realize that the enterprise wearables market is still evolving and should evaluate the core business benefits before implementing this new technology.

Identifying tasks that can be made more efficient with wearables, knowing devices’ functionality and analyzing potential risks are some of the vital first steps before incorporating wearable technology into your organization’s overall strategy. This is a brave new world that CIOs and IT departments can start exploring in order to tap mobile’s full potential in enterprise application.”

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