The company seems to be playing it safe

Apr 4, 2015 10:30 GMT  ·  By

At some point, we proclaimed 2014 the year of smartwatches and wearables. The thing is, everybody was talking about these little intelligent time pieces that connected to your smartphones, and many manufacturers launched products under this category.

It was the year when we saw Samsung, LG, Motorola, ASUS and others make a big fuss about their smartwatches, and albeit contesting their actual functionality, we got hooked to the trend too.

Interestingly enough, one of the world’s biggest players in the tech industry, Apple, made a late debut into the market. The Cupertino tech giant teased its Apple Watch product back in September 2014, but the company was able to really talk about the product last month, during its Spring Forward event.

Even so, we’re a few days away from actually being able to purchase an Apple Watch, so you can understand what I mean when I say that Apple arrived late to the wearable party.

Can Apple boost interest in smartwatches?

Apple's affiliation to the trend might prove to be crucial to the wearable market. Even if many important key players in the industry have produced smartwatches, consumer interest in these devices remains moderate. The thing is, smartwatches are still regarded as unnecessary accessories one can very well do without.

Most smartwatches will connect to your smartphone in order to relay notifications for calls and messages. They will also help you set up a fitness schedule and diary. But most people can survive without the extra bonuses a smartwatch might add to their lives. However, the advent of the Apple Watch might change this attitude.

The wearable ecosystem might be young but it’s growing fast. At this moment, major players in the tech world are actively trying to expand and enhance this particular niche: Apple with its Apple Watch, Google with its Android Wear platform, and Microsoft with its Microsoft Band.

A notable absentee on this list is BlackBerry. The company has been pretty mum about wearables, but at CES 2015 back in January, it did announce that its highly popular BlackBerry Messaging platform would be available for Android Wear devices (the most widespread OS for smartwatches). So it appears that BlackBerry is at least acknowledging the existence of wearables.

Why BlackBerry should take a chance and make a smartwatch

BlackBerry has always targeted the business-centric environment, and since enterprise users are some of the busiest people around, it would actually make sense for the Canadian company to release a smartwatch of its own aimed at professionals.

But even with the big hype created around smartwatches, customers are still pretty skittish about picking up such products. The price tags aren’t helping the situation either.

Despite this, the Canadian phone maker shouldn’t probably worry too much about pricing, at least at this point.

Products such as the Huawei Watch and the Apple Watch have already raised the bar quite high. Nevertheless, a BlackBerry smartwatch will most likely be targeted at the enterprise environment, and business consumers don’t shy away from purchasing high-end products.

BlackBerry has made it clear several times that their focus is the business environment and they have been doing a good job at maintaining them satisfied over the years.

BlackBerry might be waiting to see if the Apple Watch will end up being successful, because putting out a completely different product from a niche they haven’t tackled before could prove to be an expensive endeavor.

But if you think about it, a smartwatch for enterprise users makes a lot of sense. Business users are some of the busiest people around, so being constantly connected and receiving notifications for new emails, calls and texts can be crucial to their activities.

So maybe the BlackBerry smartwatch might find a place outside the office, but such a scenario doesn’t seem to be on the company’s priority list anyway, given that the focus is clearly on the enterprise environment.

At the moment, the world is just holding its breath waiting to see whether the smartwatch proves a necessary gadget, one that can find a real use. But in the business environment, the problematic changes a little bit.

So maybe BlackBerry needs to take a risk here and plunge into unknown territory. If smartwatches do prove to be the next big thing in tech, the Canadian company might end up jeopardizing its relationship with business users. And hence their focus is on business, this outcome might take a big toll on the company’s profits.