Wearable device technology has been around for years. As with all innovative ideas, there are a few early adopters, then some more, and then the mainstream eventually catches on and the market skyrockets. The curve is officially bending. Wearable technology is growing in adoption. Accordingly to Business Insider the market is growing on a pace to be a $12. 6 Billion market by 2018. The Apple Watch joins a crowded field of device manufacturers vying for the consumer’s wrist. With platforms like Health Kit on which to build, developers around the world will flock to developing apps for the emerging digital health and fitness market. As this market continues to penetrate the mainstream consciousness, what can we expect the impact will be on QA? Due to the incredibly sophisticated wearable environments, wearable testing will need to focus on traditional areas like:
- Functional Testing
- Software Testing
- Firmware Testing
- Load Testing
but will also need to incorporate new focus areas like:
- Mobile Compatibility
- Platform/OS Certification
- Digital User Interface Testing
These new areas of testing are complicated by the 3rd Party App integration that many companies are offering their consumers for a more balanced and fully developed experience. The line between product ownership is blurred as 3rd party integration requires a shared production ecosystem reliant on not one or two points of intersection but hundreds. In addition to the 3rd Party App integration, platforms where these products exist have started to proliferate. They now include:
- iOS
- Android
- Windows Mobile
- Health Kit
- PC/Mac
- Browsers
With this proliferation, the supported configuration matrix has not only added tremendous scope but also the need to automate this testing. Considerations
In addition to new focus areas, the need to support highly complex environments, and the challenge to leverage automation, here are a couple more considerations to think through:
- The environment is constantly changing. Operating systems are constantly being updated, new platforms (for example Health Kit) are being developed and hardware is continually changing
- Highly complex production ecosystems depend on each other to play nice (hardware, firmware, client-server, web, and mobile). Isolating issues can be a major challenge.
- Deciding when to use simulators/emulators vs. physical devices can be difficult with such a complex mixture of technologies.
Ultimately, there are many quality factors to consider when developing an app, a device, or a platform for the Wearable Device market. Stratified cuboidal epithelium http://collegepapers.co.uk in this case, cells in apical layer are cuboidal and mostly carry the role of protection. It is important to develop a strategy that is both firm and flexible and to have the right partner to help navigate the complexities of Wearable Device testing.