Lessons Learned in Developing for the Smallest Screen: Smart Watches

Presentation Title | Month 2012 | 1

Lessons Learned in Developing for the Smallest Screen- Smart Watches

Adrian Lee-KwenAndroid Software Inventor@augmentedtraff

Robert Heese@smartwatchplus


• Smart Watches Overview

• Use Cases

• Android Specific Discussions

• Lessons Learned – Augmented SmartWatch Pro

• iOS Specific Discussions (Robert)

• Lessons Learned - SmartWatch+ (Robert)

Overview


Smart Watches – Key Factors to Consider

• Environmental

• Battery Life

• Connectivity

• Software Capability

• At a glance / Hands-free


Smart Watches – Environmental

• Outdoor Readability

• Water Resistance

• Durability

• Quality of hardware


Smart Watches – Battery Life

• How often do we need to charge them

• Varies from a couple days (Sony) to a week (Pebble)

to a few months/year (G-Shock)

• Type of charger


Smart Watches – Connectivity

• Do they need to connect directly to Smart Phones or

does it work as a stand-alone?

• Reliability of connection

• Inter-operability with Bluetooth – which may vary

depending on Android version/vendor

• Stability over time – requires a reboot

• iOS or Android?

• Sony is Android only

• Support may vary between iOS and Android

• Wifi 3/4G Bluetooth


Smart Watches – Software Capability

• Typically the hardware is more advanced than the software

• Software needs to catch up

• Vendor’s focus may be hardware

• Software quality

• Many subtle issues (especially on Android)

• Getting send/subject/preview of email

• Accessibility bug in Samsung

• Grabbing notification info from 3rd party app


Smart Watches – At a Glance & Hands-Free

• Always on watch

• Dynamic info

• Highly Personal &

• Contextually Aware

• Vibration and notification alerts


One Watch-face – Changes over 24 hours


Sony SW2

© 2012, Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories, Inc. All rights reserved.


MotoACTV Pebble MetaWatch Sony SmartWatch 2

(SW2)

Sony SmartWatch 1 (MN1)

Environmental ***** *** *** ***** **

Battery * **** *** *** **

Connectivity ** *** ** **** ***

Software Capability

* ***** ** **** *****

“At a glance” & Hands-Free

** **** **** *** ***

Overall ** **** *** **** ***


Smart Watches – Killer Use Cases?

• Real-time Notifications

• “Hands-Free” and “At a Glance”

• Real-time Control – phone calls, music, home

automation, Powerpoint/Chromecast on remote PC

• Use case - two watches connect to the same Android

• Accessibility


Smart Watches – Killer Use Cases?

• Swappable watch bands

• NMA vs IMO


• Challenges

• Opportunities

• Pebble Development

• Sony Development

• Augmented SmartWatch Pro Architecture

• Canvas & Augmented – Plug-in Architecture for Pebble


Android Specific Challenges

• Something simple like getting sender/subject from an email is not so simple:

• Multiple apps for email (Gmail, K9, Exchange, Touchdown, Enhanced Mail, …)

• Multiple Versions of the Email App

• Multiple Versions of Android

• Multiple methods of getting Notification info in Android

• 1st Email vs 2nd unread email


Android Opportunity

• Multiple Methods of Extracting Notification info

• Varies by app/version/Android

• At least 4 methods (including reading app DB via root)

• Ability to “Optimize for specific Apps”

• Filter out duplicates (Spotify)

• Filter out frequent updates (Google Navigation)

• Filter out “noise” ongoing call notifications (Skype, Viber)

• Ability to reformat info to condense into Smart Watch Limited Space:

• Remove Special Characters/Spaces

• Reformat with pertinent info at the start (Google Now)


Android - Pebble Specific

• 3rd Software Ecosystem –Pebble biggest’s advantage

• Three Software Models:

• Android App – communicate via Intents to Pebble software

• Can send notifications to Pebble or override the music app info

• 2-way info possible only via Music App (buttons via BT)

• Pebble Watchface App – Runs on Pebble watch using Pebble SDK

• Best for 2-way control, flexibility

• Need to develop in C

• Hybrid – Combination of the two


Android - Pebble Specific

• Canvas Watch-Face – 3rd Party Plug-in approach

• 1-way only (send info to Pebble)

• Innovative approach

• Suggestion to 3rd Party Developers

• Plug-in approach as Canvas but as a Pebble App to allow 2-way communication


Android – Sony Specific

• Android App only via Sony SDK

• Render a bitmap/layouts -> sent to Sony Watch for display

• Touch/button input (swipe, double tap, position-sensitive)

• No programmatic access to side button

• Concept of widget vs App mode – no vibration in widget

• Colour advantage

• Issues

• Touch is not as reliable as buttons

• SmartWatch 1 display is not viewable in sunlight

• Initially “at a glance and hands free” difficult to implement


Android – Sony Specific

• Initially – auto display of any bitmap challenging to do

• Show Icon was the most common approach – not hands-free

• It is possible to do this:

Intent i = new Intent(Control.Intents.CONTROL_START_REQUEST_INTENT);

i.putExtra(Control.Intents.EXTRA_AEA_PACKAGE_NAME,whichApp);

if (Utils.isSonyWirelessHeadsetRunning(this))

i.setPackage("com.sonyericsson.extras.smartwirelessheadsetpro");

else

i.setPackage("com.sonyericsson.extras.smartwatch");sendBroadcast(i, Registration.HOSTAPP_PERMISSION);


Android – Sony SmartWatch 2

• New SDK is compatible with the older watch (simultaneous notifications and widget mode not there yet)

• 220x176 display resolution

• Will scale up the older 128x128 apps (default)

• Highly recommended to optimize for newer display size

• Additional “buttons” accessible to app options/back

• Native support for additional building blocks (lists etc) to rapidly build richer apps

• Lack of 3rd party APIs for Watchfaces (hence cannot be a Pebble killer yet)

• low power mode may offer a potential solution


Architecture of Augmented SmartWatch Pro

• Key Objectives

• Support Open APIs (both into Augmented and into other apps)

• Concurrent Support for Multiple SmartWatches

• Integration with Tasker (Key 3rd party automation app)


Android Broadcasts(SMS, Incoming Calls,

Dock, Power Connected, K9,

Alarms, Network, Pebble Connect)

3rd Party Apps/Tasker

Intent API com.alk.k9.add.action


Pebble Canvas Plug-In Integration

• Future of the WatchFace

• Dynamic, Contextual, High Personal

• Simple APIs:

• Registration of Plug-ins

• Refresh of Data

• On-Demand Data (text or image)

• Interface Class (reuse as-is from Canvas Author, just copy into your project)

• Provide implementation of above APIs (plus any extensions)

• Highly recommended


Augmented Plug-In Extensions for Canvas

• Dynamic WatchFace based on notification content

• Dynamic Image based on sender/Notification

• Dynamic content (notification alert vs post-alert)

• Tasker/3rd party Intent API

• Multiple Asynchronous Plug-ins for Text info

• Dynamic horizontal bars – to convey state info

• Fitbit, Klout + Withings Info


Lessons Learned


Lessons Learned - Augmented SmartWatch Pro

• Origins of the App

• Key App Stats

• Pricing

• App Sales


Origins - Augmented SmartWatch Pro

• Initial use case

• Sony break-thru

• Reduce Tech Support issues - > Paid app


Android App Stats -


Key App Stats

• Downloads – 7000+

• Installs to Downloads Ratio – 60%

• Ratings – 4.1

• No ability to determine breakdown by Smart Watch – No Analytics (on purpose)


Pricing an Application?

I think pricing in the Android ecosystem is weird. If you would have charged $15 for it I wouldn’t have bought it.

Not because it’s a lot of money but because hardly anyone does that besides the productivity suites.

…

Send me your PayPal and I’ll send you $10. I checked and the above address isn’t registered.


Pricing an Application?

THIS APP IS WAY WAY WAY TO OVER PRICED AND YOU INTEND TO

INCREASE IT. GET IT WORKING AT 100% PERCENT B 4 OVER PRICING

GREEDY ONE.REPLYS WILL NOT B SEEN BECAUSE THEY WILL JUST BE

HYPOCRITE RESPONSES TO BEING SCHOOLED.


Raising the price by 60% Accelerated Downloads!


App Sales

Tip - Appmonger app to track sales

Price Changes impact

Refunds – 17% refunds (@1 out of every 7)

Refunds after 15 minute window

Purchasing outside of Play store

Holiday sales spike?

• don’t decrease the price increase it


App Sales – By Day of Week & Country


Smart Watches – Conclusions

• There is no dominant player today

• Highly personal – use cases depend on the individual

• Software is terribly lacking – hardware is advanced

• Great opportunity for developers (call to action)

@augmentedtraff

Lessons Learned in Developing for the Smallest Screen: Smart Watches

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