Hewlett-Packard is looking to expand from its existing wearables presence in the consumer market into the commercial segment, with new R&D focused on smart corporate ID badges.
Now UK news outlet The Register reports that HP is looking to dominate the commercial wearables realm, which the company sees as holding greater potential than commercial products.
“We think the bigger opportunity is in commercial,” said HP chief technology officer Shane Wall.
“The objective is to be number one in the commercial segment and to own that segment as its a natural strength for us. And then in consumer we’ll play very aggressively in areas where we believe we can be profitable,” he said.
For years, Palo Alto-based HP has been expanding beyond its stronghold of printer manufacturing into a broad array of consumer electronics products. And now with the smart badge, it sees an opportunity to enter the commercial market by replacing the traditional identification badge that is already worn by a huge swath of the global workforce.
“Think about it, what is the most deployed wearable in enterprise? It’s actually your badge,” Wall said. “All of us at any sizeable company have a badge. We see the opportunity to replace the badge with something you are already going to wear today.”
In an age where identity fraud and terrorist infiltration is becoming a top security priority, Wall says HP envisions developing a smart ID badge that can, among other functions, authenticate an individual rather than “authenticating against a badge that could be handed to someone else for entry.”
HP wearables efforts started with consumer products
HP entered the wearables market with a luxury smartwatch offering: the Movado Bold Motion and watches developed in partnership with Isaac Mizrahi, Michael Bastian and Titan.biggest mistake was missing the big shift toward smartphones and tablets that started with Apple’s iPhone.
The firm didn’t want to get left behind in wearables as it did with the big shift toward smartphones and tablets that started with Apple’s iPhone.
