What can Google's glasses do to Apple Watch?

Now, it's hard to hear the news from Apple Watch. When the smart watch was released in early March, its news coverage was overwhelming. Reporters reported on their blogs about each stage of the launch, and Apple fans discussed the smart watch through blogs, tweets and YouTube videos.

Apple Watch

To prevent anyone in the world from knowing about this device, Apple Watch app is automatically embedded in the iphone's latest iOS operating system on millions of iphones. The app includes an Apple Watch AD, a 10-minute video by chief designer Johnny Eve explaining Apple Watch, and a link to the Apple Watch app Jony to be launched on the Apple Store App Store. Don't worry if the watch doesn't start shipping by the end of April.

While Apple is poised to enter the new product market for wearables, another Silicon Valley technology giant, Google, 10 miles north of Apple, has quietly halted the production of its most watched wearable device, the smart eyewear. Google has suspended the production of Google Eyewear and is waiting to redesign its products. Google glasses temporarily withdrew from the market after two years of listing.

Quietly discontinued Google Glasses

The device was originally sold to the invited testers, which Google called "Explorers", before being sold to the general public, with mixed comments. But Google said it would not give up the smart glasses for the time being. "We will continue to develop Google glasses, and consumers will see new versions of Google glasses," he adds. "And now, no peeking," the Google Eyewear team said in a letter posted on Google Plus on January 15. ”

Of the two wearable devices, the two competing technology giants are known for their emphasis on innovation and financial wealth, but they have taken a different approach when entering the new product market. At the moment, Google glasses have failed to arouse public interest and even face privacy concerns over its video features. In fact, Google's strategy to launch smart glasses is a wake-up call for other companies seeking to enter the wearable device market.

While Apple may be a marketing guru, it is the first time it has entered the smart watch market, and Google's mistakes can make it warning.

Apple's strategy is different from Google's. "The release of the two devices is very high-profile and is interesting to interested companies, but they are very different in every way. Peter Fader, co-director of the Harvard Business School marketing professor and Harvard Business School Customer Analytics Program (Wharton Customer Analytics Initiative), said: "Apple has the two different technologies we know – watches and smartphones -Together. When the two are combined and two are one, the overall effect is greater than the sum of the parts. ”

The situation with Google Glasses is different. "There is no one in Google glasses that we can see clearly. You can say it's a combination of a computer or a smartphone and a pair of glasses, "Federica's says (his son has a pair of Google glasses)," but the way Google's glasses function and how they are worn, and how they use them, is very different from the way they are used by glasses and smartphones. ”

Google glasses initially did not have the lens, only the frame. On the edge of the glasses is a microcomputer screen that activates when the wearer tilts the head or touches the frame. Users can scroll through the screen or perform actions by using voice commands, or by tapping and sliding the touchpad on one side of the frame.

But in addition to novelty, the positioning of Google's glasses is unclear: why should users wear a computer on their faces? "We haven't figured out why it exists," Federica's said. "Unfortunately, I think it could have been a huge success, but Google didn't manage the development and release of the product properly, and they never gave it a chance – it's really hard to get rid of these negative effects." ”

Federica's points out that since Google Eyewear is a strange product for most consumers, a gradual release strategy should be adopted. Federica's that Google should learn from the marketing strategy of mobile phones when it first entered the market in the 1980s: first for professionals with mobile jobs, such as real estate brokers and doctors, to meet their professional needs, and then expand to the general public.

If the product is phased out, Google can continue to develop the technology and reduce the cost of the product (the product is priced at $1500). Next, Google can let the discussion craze for the product rise, from users to experts, to high-end consumers, and then to the mass market, so that more consumers accept it. "Google glasses are so different that they need to take a completely separate strategy. ”

Federica's compares Google glasses to Segway, an ingenious battery-powered two-wheeled electric vehicle that allows users to shift their focus to make it move. In 2001, on ABC's Good Morning America, Segway first came out and then immediately launched it for the general public without confirming its usefulness to consumers beforehand. The initial price of the Segway is $5000, and even with its revolutionary technology, the price is prohibitive for consumers.

Federica's that the Segway is a strange product that should be brought into the market in stages, while the company should strive to reduce costs. "It should never have appeared in Good Morning America and let [TV host] Charlie Gibson and Dian Soyer drive it," Federica's said.

At the time, however, the Segway faced another difficult difficulty: it made the person driving it look strange, as if standing on a rolling platform. Wired Magazine once called it a "ridiculous" high-tech "scooter". The American Connecticut State local newspaper, Hartford, says it looks like a "rotary lawn mower".

A notable exception to the sequential promotion strategy is the iphone, Federica's points out. Apple introduced the product to the public at once. Even at the time it was operating in a vastly different way from most phones, consumers were buying it because they saw the iphone as a replacement for their MP3 music player, video player and camera, while still making phone calls, surfing the web and sending text messages. In addition, the mobile app extends the capabilities of the smartphone to turn it into a pedometer, flashlight, compass, camcorder and many other tools.

Federica's added that Apple's excellent marketing capabilities and its "Halo and consumer trust in it" helped drive the iphone's sales success. In addition, Apple has a large number of loyal fans is one of the elements of the iphone success. "When Apple released the product, people lined up in the streets scrambling to become its first buyer, and no other company in the world could rival it," he says. "If [Apple] tells me it's a good thing, I'd like to try it." ”

What can Google's glasses do to Apple Watch?