Is it Time to Develop for Google Glass?

We know what you are thinking: Oh don’t say this, you can’t be serious! We just got our heads around mobile and put out a few decent enterprise apps that people actually use… no, no no no no no! Not listening to this … la la la la la… Great weather we’re having!!! What??? Yes I enjoyed Anchorman very much, you??? 
OK… maybe that’s not EXACTLY what you’re thinking, but likely it’s close. It’s OK to admit it. And here is the “good” news … the answer to the blog post question is…
Maybe.
Glass is going to be – and please pardon this clear non-word – “nicheier” than you may imagine. The purposes behind why people will want to wear and use Glass will be more specific than say that of the smartphone, and the apps created on top of this wearable platform will be significantly more niche than that for the current mobile device. 
Let’s start with the super obvious groups that need to be developing on Glass now. If your industry is entertainment, music streaming, social, media, fitness, sporting goods/apparel/equipment – and there are others – then yes; you should already be experimenting with creating new user experiences on Glass. Just as mobile changed the game the world over, Glass (and the larger umbrella of wearable technologies) is set to do it all over again.
Let’s talk about a potential example: If you are say, Pandora, isn’t it just patently obvious that you are going to want to lead in your category and bring new user experiences to a platform like ‘Glass’? Currently, many times when you are using Pandora, the phone is either in your pocket, strapped to your arm band during a run, in your hand but you are texting someone anyway, on your dash as the tunes stream through your audio system, or inside on the counter as you sit next to the bluetooth speaker out on your deck. But what should Pandora do, strategically, when all of the sudden the application has the opportunity to be the center of attention? And not just the audio content but the visual content as well. Should Pandora just recreate the current mobile experience, delivering solid band bios and such? Absolutely not. Likely, they will re-invent how user’s experience Pandora through ‘Glass’, add services, add smart visually-based content, re-think how audio can interact with visual in compelling ways, and by doing all of this… convert more users to a premium subscription OR push more effective advertising to the end-user. Either path makes Pandora more money. No path will be presented if they fail to innovate.
But what about the not so obvious? What types of industries are we talking about here? Let’s start from the macro and say; any industry where your organization has people “out in the field” will likely need to develop on Google Glass. Electricians, surgeons, police officers, masons, foremans, military, welders, agriculture, auto, service providers – any industry where your people will gain productivity or safety because both hands are always free, will be an industry that will be developing on glass. We understand, a surgeon isn’t tweeting during surgery – she waits until post-op like the rest of us! – but what if the surgeon never had to reach for her mobile to receive an emergency message or look down at a patient’s chart as a trauma case entered her OR? Then, there is the very real promise that a surgeon could perform even more accurately while actively wearing and engaging a glass app during surgery. What if ‘glass’ could make her even better? Think this is far fetched? Meet Dr. Rafael Grossmann and read this Forbes.com article, then tell me how far-fetched this is.
In the same exact way that the best mobile applications are true new experiences that eloquently use the sensors and services mobile can provide; the best Google Glass applications will do the same. Just as porting your website to the mobile device made for a really crummy, and worse, mainly non-useful mobile experience, porting your mobile app to ‘Glass’ will create most often, an all too familiar poor experience. In short, it’s time to innovate again. 

Related Read: Why Your Mobile User Experience  Must Be a “Useful” Experience

The content in this post will sound “old” faster than you likely envision. Is it time for you to develop for Google Glass? The answer is, at the very least; maybe.