In modern electronic business era, the currently popular topic of wearable computing devices (WCD) has prompted foreign and local industry players to look proactively into various WCD-related developments, including the external appearances of WCD hardware, software applications, human-device interface designs, and the appearances of WCDs expected by general users. Setting aside the necessary functional specifications and application requirements of WCDs, the wearing habits that general users have already developed is a more fundamental consideration. These habits should form the basis for the design of both WCD hardware and software at the technological level. In this paper, an analysis is made of the items that general users customarily wear and the purpose(s) and frequency of wearing them. The findings will serve as a reference for industry players who wish to enter the WCD market

Chen, Chung-Yang

Tsai, Wen-Lung

English

AIS Electronic Library (AISeL)

Association for Information SystemsAIS Electronic Library (AISeL)WHICEB 2014 Proceedings Wuhan International Conference on e-BusinessSummer 6-1-2014The Key Success Factors of Wearable ComputingDevices: An User-Centricity PerspectiveChung-Yang ChenDepartment of Information Management in National Central University No.300, Jhongda Rd., Jhongli City, Taoyuan County32001, TaiwanWen-Lung TsaiDepartment of Information Management in National Central University No.300, Jhongda Rd., Jhongli City, Taoyuan County32001, Taiwan, tswelu@gmail.comFollow this and additional works at: http://aisel.aisnet.org/whiceb2014This material is brought to you by the Wuhan International Conference on e-Business at AIS Electronic Library (AISeL). It has been accepted forinclusion in WHICEB 2014 Proceedings by an authorized administrator of AIS Electronic Library (AISeL). For more information, please contactelibrary@aisnet.org.Recommended CitationChen, Chung-Yang and Tsai, Wen-Lung, "The Key Success Factors of Wearable Computing Devices: An User-Centricity Perspective"(2014). WHICEB 2014 Proceedings. 50.http://aisel.aisnet.org/whiceb2014/50The Thirteenth Wuhan International Conference on E-Business—Human Behavior and Social Impacts on E-Business 267The Key Success Factors of Wearable Computing Devices:An User-Centricity PerspectiveChung-Yang Chen, Wen-Lung Tsai一Department of Information Management in National Central UniversityNo.300, Jhongda Rd., Jhongli City, Taoyuan County 32001, TaiwanAbstract: In modern electronic business era, the currently popular topic of wearable computing devices (WCD) hasprompted foreign and local industry players to look proactively into various WCD-related developments, including theexternal appearances of WCD hardware, software applications, human-device interface designs, and the appearances ofWCDs expected by general users. Setting aside the necessary functional specifications and application requirements ofWCDs, the wearing habits that general users have already developed is a more fundamental consideration. These habitsshould form the basis for the design of both WCD hardware and software at the technological level. In this paper, an analysisis made of the items that general users customarily wear and the purpose(s) and frequency of wearing them. The findingswill serve as a reference for industry players who wish to enter the WCD market.Keywords: wearable computing devices, hardware, software, user-centricity1. INTRODUCTIONWearable computing devices have evolved over decades, with devices taking on more and more computingand communication capabilities, offering up new opportunities by expanding the ecosystem of players involved.The role of wireless connectivity, platforms, analytics, and applications is increasing, making way for a broader,emerging wearable computing devices category.ABI Research [1] estimates the market for WCDs in the sports and health sectors will grow to nearly 170million devices by 2017 — an annual growth rate of 41 percent. Forrester Research views growth in the sectoras contingent upon the big five software platforms: Apple, Google, Microsoft, Amazon and Facebook. It predictsthat Google is the likely winner in the race for the next major device category, due to the jump Android has withsome early device manufacturers. Hence, an analysis in this paper is made of the items that general userscustomarily wear and the purpose(s) and frequency of wearing them. The findings will serve as a reference forindustry players who wish to enter the WCD market.2. THE DEVELOPMENT OFWCDSRecent studies give partial insight on how WCD and business models [2] intersect from a user-centricperspective. First, related studies about WCD have examined issues related to architecture [3], [4] and awarenessmanagement in networks [5]. Furthermore, cloud computing is presented as an option to support WCD issues [6].Next, limits of literature on wearable devices (e.g. accessories) examines application wear-ability for networksurfing through multiple accessories or devices [7] as well as in heterogeneous network environments [8]. Third,while research on business models focused on value creation [9] business models that may be harnessed and theirdesign [10]. Some studies ventured toward payment adoption [11] or demand related variables [12]. However, userhabit factors also affect user wearing mobility and users put a high premium on the quality of their experience asevidenced by research on innovative business model.一 Corresponding author. Email: tswelu@gmail.com (Wen-Lung Tsai)268 The Thirteenth Wuhan International Conference on E-Business—Human Behavior and Social Impacts on E-BusinessAs past works rarely examined wearable technology, devices, and business models from a user-centricperspective, this preliminary study makes a contribution by looking at these factors simultaneously. Indeed,making sense of the new trends in devices, platforms and available content, software and applications from theuser wearing habit is increasingly difficult given their diversity. It is not clear yet whether other studies did notfocus on specific user wearing issues., this paper contributes a different user-centric method of tackling userwearing associated with wear-ability while looking at devices, users and some habit as well as business models.In the following section, we report our preliminary findings.3. PRELIMINARYFINDINGS AND RESULTS3.1 General user preferred body parts forWCDs: Eyes, head, and handsFor the general user, a WCD is worn in much closer contact with the body and especially the heart thansmart phones are. After all, the latter cannot be worn and may be randomly placed anywhere, whereas a WCDmust be placed on the body and will influence the daily behaviors of its user. Surveys of user wearing habitsindicate that the preferred body parts for various types of WCDs (as Figure 1) are as follows (in descendingorder): (i) eyes (approximately 72%)—sunglasses, shades, and prescription glasses (for vision correction); (ii)head (approximately 70%)—hats, caps, and scarves; and (iii) hand—wrist watches (68.1%), bracelets (49.7%),and rings (59.4%). Audio earphones and headphones, WCDs with which consumers are already familiar,received a preference rate of 64.7%.Figure 1 Body parts on which general users customarily wearWCDs [13] [14]3.2 Users’ habits for WCDs based on wearing frequency (in descending order): Glasses, watches, andringsAdditional analyses were made of the customary wearing frequency of WCDs by general users. Wearingfrequency is a reflection of the strength of the user demand for a WCD function. This information will alsoprovide an understanding of the degree of adhesiveness that general users have with their current WCDs. Thereare two main categories (as Figure 2) of WCDs: (i) Perpetually worn: items that are worn for a long duration ona daily basis, including prescription glasses for correction of short- or long-sightedness or other vision problems(56.6%), watches (40.6%), and rings (30%); and (ii) frequently worn: items that are frequently worn whenevernecessary, either daily or at least once a week. These include sunglasses and shades (36.3%) and audioearphones and headphones (29%).The Thirteenth Wuhan International Conference on E-Business—Human Behavior and Social Impacts on E-Business 269Figure 2 Frequency of wearing WCDs to which users are accustomed [13] [14]4. BUSINESS MODELS AND CHANCESWCD became a defining characteristic of many devices (e.g. PDAs, mp3 players) that saw their functionsconverge into smart phones and eventually became a noted feature of a range of devices (e.g. tablets). The trendlikely being improved wear-ability of devices (e.g. Google glasses). While wearable computing has been aroundfor a long time, the nearing step may prove better adopted as users become used to well-designed I/O apparatusthat will make this sort of wear-ability both sensible and natural. These changes in WCD have a great impact onbusiness models. For wireless carriers, it means more devices are connected to their networks and thus a rise intheir traditional businesses of carrying voice and data. But this also implies new value streams that come from adifferent way/process of interacting with users. Device makers can now make money on the physical devicesthemselves, but also derive advantages from sharing platforms/OS. Apps and software developers, also havenew possibilities to maximize downloads and adjust payment possibilities by moving from free to fee-basedmodels.Even a modest proliferation of WCD in the coming years will create massive new data streams that willlikely exhibit exponential growth. Thus the analytics layer is critical to enabling many WCDs, particularly thosewith sensors to monitor the movement and state of the person wearing the devices. Big Data allows WCDimplementations to drive true business value for a company taking advantage of this connectivity and datacapture.Leveraging the power of "Big Data" and the capabilities that data vendors offer to enterprises can beextended to WCD applications. These analytics can take data collected by the connection and endpoint and turnit into actionable insights that consumers can use to improve their lives and businesses can use to help theircustomers.With social networks hugely popular, and the myriad of data these networks compile, it is expected that therise of WCDs will also leverage the role of social. After a data transaction takes place, a social element can belayered on top of the data collected to paint a richer picture of the person or process being monitored.5. WHAT IS NEXT?The WCD market has highly anticipated potential into which many large international manufacturers arepreparing to venture. However, the key to the success of a WCD lies in its user-centricity in terms ofdevelopment and design. With the trend of giving smart phones more and more functions, one suggestion is tomove away from the mindset of standard applications and, instead, find those applications that users really need270 The Thirteenth Wuhan International Conference on E-Business—Human Behavior and Social Impacts on E-Businessfrom the perspective of what they wear and how they wear them. First, the design should be based on userexperiences: What is the purpose of a user having multiple WCDs? What is the WCD demand for each? Whatare the scenarios or occasions in which it will be used? To arrive at the answers to these questions, it isnecessary to make in-depth observations of user habits, behaviors, and needs. Only then will the WCDs bedesigned to meet user needs. Second, there must be insights into the user daily wearing habits: Observationsmust be made of the WCD currently being used by general users and their usage behaviors. Issues to considerinclude the possibility of making WCD more intelligent and overcoming the inconveniences of using smartphones so as to identify the WCD and applications that are genuinely needed by a majority of users.Our preliminary findings are designed to be flexible enough to address those developments. WCD for thecommercial/industrial market will benefit from fewer constraints than in the end-user market, but theirapplication set may also be more limited and their costs higher. In some ways, the development of WCD mayimitate that of smart phones, which began primarily as a tool for business, with innovations such as push to talkfocused on industrial applications. We could imagine WCD with their functions and capabilities getting honed inthe commercial/industrial world, where tolerance for issues around usability, comfort, and appearances may behigher. It may be only later that when costs have declined, usability has improved, and comfort and appearanceissues have been addressed, WCD become fit for the en-user world.REFERENCE[1] ABI Research. (2013). Next Generation Mobile Devices available on: https://www.abiresearch.com/research/service/mobile-device-enabling-technologies/.[2] Cimon, Y. (2013). Revisiting Mobility, Devices and Business Models: A User-Centric Perspective. Proceedings of theThird International Conference on Mobile Services, Resources, and Users. MOBILITY 2013, 120-124.[3] Wei Q., Jin, Z. (2012). Service discovery for internet of things: a context awareness perspective. Proceedings of theFourth Asia-Pacific Symposium on Internetware, 1-6.[4] Malek, S., Edwards, G. Brun, Y., Tajalli, H., Garcia, J. et al. (2010). An architecture-driven software mobilityframework. Journal of Systems and Software, 83: 972-989.[5] Mwangoka, J. W., Marques, P. Rodriguez, J. (2010). Cognitive mobility management in heterogeneous networks.Proceedings of the 8th ACM international workshop on Mobility management and wireless access, 37-44.[6] Fernando, N., Loke, S. W., Rahayu, W. (2013). Mobile cloud computing: A survey. Future Generation ComputerSystems, 29(1): 84-106.[7] Ahlund, A., Mitra, K., Johansson, D., Ahlund, C., and Zaslavsky, A. (2009). Context-aware application mobility supportin pervasive computing environments. Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Mobile Technology,Application & Systems, 1-4.[8] Flinn, J., Giuli, T. J., Higgins, B., Noble, B., Reda, A. et al. (2009). The case for intentional networking. Proceedings ofthe 10th workshop on Mobile Computing Systems and Applications, 1-6.[9] Amit, R., Zott, C. (2012). CreatingValue Through BusinessModel Innovation.MITSloanManagement Review, 53(3): 41-49.[10] Osterwalder A., Pigneur, Y. (2013). Designing Business Models and Similar Strategic Objects: The Contribution of IS.Journal of the Association for Information Systems, 14(5): 237-244.[11] Kim, C., Mirusmonov, M., Lee, I. (2010). An empirical examination of factors influencing the intention to use mobilepayment. Computers in Human Behavior, 26(3): 310-322.[12] Iden J.,Methlie, L. B., (2012). The drivers of services on next-generation networks. Telematics and Informatics, 29(2): 137-155.[13] IDC. (2013). IDC's Worldwide Wearable Computing Devices Taxonomy, available on http://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=243964.[14] Wikipedia. (2013). Wearable computer, available on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wearable_computer.

The Key Success Factors of Wearable Computing Devices: An User-Centricity Perspective

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The Key Success Factors of Wearable Computing Devices: An User-Centricity Perspective

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