Scania is taking a lead in the wearable technology market with the release of the new Scania Watch. The device clearly demonstrates how companies can benefit from the trend to fuse fashion with technology.
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“Wearables” is the term used for clothing and accessories that incorporate computers and other advanced electronic technologies. It’s a hot new trend, yet experts say many organisations are struggling to find ways to use it to add value to their goods and services.
As Marina Koytcheva, from mobile communication analysts CSS, said earlier this year: “The wearables market is in its Stone Age right now. There needs to be huge improvements to broaden their appeal. The market is still in a chaotic stage of development, and there’s still a huge amount of uncertainty.”
Koytcheva added that the market could be changed beyond recognition if a major player became involved. So Scania’s launch in December of the new wearable watch it has developed with Sony Mobile could just put the company in a market leading position.
Kristian Lövgren heads up the Scania Black Griffin Watch project at Sony Mobile. “Most companies are taking small steps to get used to the new technology,” he says. “They haven’t finger pointed what to do with it. But Scania has taken a whole new approach.”
Lövgren has been particularly impressed with how Scania takes into consideration the end users of its products – truck and bus drivers. “Scania is the first company that I have worked with that thinks about the benefits to its customers, the drivers, as opposed to thinking solely about sales. And I think this is great and should be the aim for all companies in the future. The new wearable watch is a great example of this.”
The idea for the Scania Black Griffin Watch followed on from the development of a driver training tool called the Wickit, which was also created by Scania and Sony. The Wickit uses tablet computers that communicate with trucks to show instructors how drivers are operating their vehicles.
The watch takes the ideas used in the Wickit further by providing Scania drivers with a device that communicates with their trucks’ technical systems and which they can wear on their wrists. Information about fuel consumption, driving behavior and average speeds are just some of the things that can be displayed on the watch.
Scania’s aim for the watch was in fact to develop technology that will be the driver’s friend. And Lövgren believes this is exactly what the watch has achieved. “What we have done with the watch is find a much better application of wearable technology than we have seen before,” he says. “It really gives the driver a good view of his daily work. And I really believe that all the benefits that drivers will get from this watch will show that it is exactly the right use for wearable technology.”
Mattias Lundholm is Head of Scania’s Connected Services and Solutions team, which is the Scania team behind the watch. While wearables use is still in its early stages and market awareness is low, Mattias thinks it is essential for Scania to get involved in the segment.
“We’re sitting on a lot of data,” he says. “And we thought, ‘how can we use this data outside the normal contexts?’. We also wanted to test new media, and wearables fit right into this. I don’t think there is any risk at all in launching this watch. I think we would have taken a risk by not launching it, as our competitors may launch similar things and then two or three years down the line we would be left behind. Now we are being proactive.”
The launch of the Scania watch is of course not only timed to coincide with the increasing awareness of wearables but also with Christmas. And Lundholm thinks that drivers who buy it, or receive it as a Christmas gift, will really enjoy it.
And this is just the start, as Scania and Sony Mobile aim to add further features to the next version of watch and are already thinking about what these may be. “We have more crazy ideas coming,” says Lundholm.
“No one has done anything like this before,” adds Sony Mobile’s Lövgren. “The Scania watch will give a whole different view on what can be done with wearables and its launch should give Scania good brand recognition too. They will really benefit from this.”
This echoes what Ben Wood, another analyst at CSS, recently told the industry magazine Mobile News: “Wearables are a marketers dream,” Wood said. “This has got to be an opportunity.”
