Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone for the first time just seven years ago. When he held it up for the world to see, he shared the three main use cases: a touch-screen music player, a next generation phone, and an internet communications device.  There were only three sensors on the first iPhone—proximity, light and an accelerometer.  There were no apps.  

Nobody in the audience—or the world—looked at this new device and thought “this is going to transform the global taxi market” or “this will transform enterprise software” and allows people to run their entire business on their phone.

But the iPhone—and the platform of mobile, touch-enabled, and sensor packed computer—did just this; transform industries, business, and enterprise software.  

In seven short years, we have learned what amazing applications—and businesses—can be created when a new mobile computing platform is introduced.

Today, we bear witness to the dawn of an entirely new and exciting platform for mobile computing: wearables. Wearables are the next phase of the mobile revolution.

Wearables are computers and sensors that we wear. They can be in the form of glasses, watches, bracelets, jewelry, or clothing. These things that we wear connect to the systems, people, and places around us.  They are key to a future of contextual computing—where our software knows the specific context of who we are, where we are, and what information we need at that exact moment.  

Till now, most people have thought of wearables as an entirely consumer-driven phenomenon. Wearables are about health. Wearables are about fashion. Wearables are about fun. They are, and that’s great.  

But wearables are also about business. Specifically, they are about a new platform for transformative business applications. As Forrester analyst, JP Gowender writes:

“Perpetually connected wearables will enable workers, partners, and customers to experience new levels of immediacy, simplicity, and context in their mobile computing experiences. Wearables aren't just a consumer phenomenon: They have the potential to change the way organizations and workers conduct business.”    

We agree!

Salesforce.com has a long tradition translating trends in consumer computing into amazing business products that improve customer connection. We thought enterprise software could be delivered faster, cheaper, and more reliably if businesses had access to what consumers had with Amazon.com. We knew companies could be more productive with social software connecting employees and consumers to the social web. And we launched Salesforce1 to harness the power of the mobile web for business.    

And now, with Salesforce Wear, salesforce.com is entering the wearable revolution. We’ve started the industry’s first initiative to accelerate wearables in the enterprise. We’ve released open source apps for many leading wearables, and our ISV’s are quickly building amazing apps already.  

Want to learn more about what the next mobile revolution can do to deliver amazing experiences that drive productivity for customer and employees? Interested in learning how wearables will provide amazing experiences (and productivity) in sales, service, marketing and more?  Curious what wearable leaders like Chris O’Neill from Google Glass, Stephen Lake from Thalmic, Brent Blum from Accenture, or Brian Ballard from APX Labs are planning?

Come join us at Dreamforce!  There will be wearables everywhere—in keynotes, campgrounds, demos and more.  

In particular, we’ll have a number of sessions that dive deep into the future of wearables in business. See Emerging Technology Trends at Dreamforce blog for more info.

Emerging Trends: Keynote and Panel

Monday, October 13th, 9:00 AM - 9:40 AM | Hilton San Francisco Union Square, Grand Ballroom B

Salesforce Wear Keynote: The Dawn of Wearables in Business

Monday, October 13th, 12:00 PM - 12:40 PM | Hilton San Francisco Union Square, Grand Ballroom B

Wearing the Future: How Wearables Will Impact Enterprise Technology

Tuesday, October 14th, 11:30 AM - 12:10 PM | Palace Hotel, Ralston Ballroom

10 Reasons Wearables Are the Next Mobile Revolution

Wednesday, October 15th, 10:15 AM - 10:55 AM | Palace Hotel, Ralston Ballroom

Building for Wearables: Lessons learned from Salesforce Wear

Thursday, October 16th, 10:00 AM - 10:40 AM | Century Theaters, Theater 6

Daniel Debow is the Senior Vice President of salesforce.com’s emerging technologies. In this role he is responsible for developing and launching new solutions from concept to mainstream adoption. He is a passionate entrepreneur and is focused on creating business value out of technology disruption. Most recently Daniel has focused on the business applications of wearables.  

Daniel was the co-founder and CEO of Rypple, which was acquired by Salesforce.com in 2011 and rebranded as Salesforce Work.com, a social performance management platform. Prior to Rypple, Danielwas on the founding team of Workbrain, a workforce management software company. Daniel led Workbrain’s sale to Infor in 2007.

Daniel holds a JD/MBA from the University of Toronto and an LLM in Law, Science and Technology from Stanford University. He lives in Toronto with his wife and three kids.

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