Roger Fingas
Apple is looking to market the Apple Watch as a tool useful in the enterprise world, and not just as a fashion item, a new corporate job opening indicates.
This week the company posted an listing for an Apple Watch marketing specialist, as discovered by AppleInsider. Apple's ideal candidate will be working with Apple's Business Markets team, and encourage businesses of all sizes to "focus on applications of the Apple Watch in the enterprise space."
The person is expected to be comfortable in developing web, mobile, audio, video, and social content, with skills in areas like writing, Keynote, and Photoshop. A background in "Health/Wellness" is considered a "plus," which may suggest that in some cases Apple wants to sell companies on health and fitness benefits.
Beyond content creation, the specialist will be tasked with running "perpetual competitive analysis," and keeping tabs on the Watch's active enterprise deployments.
Apple has devoted the lion's share of Watch marketing towards consumers, billing it as much as a fashion accessory as a practical device. It's not clear how well the Watch might succeed in the enterprise realm, since it requires an iPhone, and is built for fashion over ruggedness. It also starts at $349, which even with bulk discounts may be expensive to deploy among large workforces.
It could however have a use among businesses that are already attached to the iPhone and want to speed up certain interactions, such as sending alerts or opening secure doors. Apple has yet to show off any uniquely enterprise-oriented Watch apps.
Charles Martin
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10 Comments
Salesforce.com is been advertising all over Facebook on their upcoming salesforce.com app for the Apple Watch. So the Apple Watch could be used by sales force for sales leads and customer updates, etc.
[quote name="Ray Castillo" url="/t/185633/apple-working-to-market-apple-watch-to-enterprise-job-listing-reveals#post_2705494"]Salesforce.com is been advertising all over Facebook on their upcoming salesforce.com app for the Apple Watch. So the Apple Watch could be used by sales force for sales leads and customer updates, etc.[/quote] I've seen that. I don't hold out hopes it'll be any good. Their website is fairly meh.
I think it will do great in a work environment, but I think the BYOD sector is the one that will be taking advantage of it first and foremost. After initially being a little skeptical, I think this is a far bigger market than the iPad, especially in the type of workforce where employees pulling out their phones from their pockets to check alerts is frowned upon. And that's a HUGE sector. ..the being frowned on for always pulling out your phone market. ..come to think of it, people are going to be far more irritated by this device than of people pulling out their phones. YIKES, i can see backlash already. Distractions, distractions, and this is going to be the mother of them.
huge, huge, market.
Also being able to check sports scores at church, boring lunches is a game changer.
The only thing I have read about muting the ?Watch for incoming calls is covering it with your hand, but without a mute button I guess you'll have some means to turn it off within the settings.
I've seen that. I don't hold out hopes it'll be any good. Their website is fairly meh.
Salesforce is a dream compared to Oracle and shudder SAP. My company uses SAP for all their enterprise apps. Say you need to look up Acme Widgets. You need to pull up a search box, and set Name = *WID*. And half the system is broken in Chrome, the other half is broken in Safari.