What makes us care about/Love new technology?

What makes us care about new technology?

In launching our company, Playtabase, we started to ask ourselves - What makes people care and ultimately go on to love new technology? Okay, I get that love may be a strong word here; ultimately it often becomes a strong emotional attachment. Let me give you a couple of examples:

How many of you have left your house after a rushed morning and to your horror realize that you have left you phone at home on the counter? You first think, it’s just a phone I don’t really need it; its not food, shelter, clothing or air, right? We are left with two choices: get it when you get back at the end of the day or turn the car around and go back and get it. Most of us have taken the later approach and gone back home only to feel “normal” again. We, of course, justify this behavior with the thought of all of the people who might call us or the emergency that could happen and we are not reachable.

I sat down two days ago in my living room to watch the game and realized that the remote had gone missing. I do realize that it is an inanimate object and does not, on its own, possess the power to get up and go for a walk, but nonetheless it was gone. I spent the next 30 minutes tearing the house apart until I found it; so again I can feel “normal”. I could have easily gotten up and changed the channel or turned up or down the volume on the actual TV, but I felt I needed the remote to feel as if the world was somehow put back in order.

Both of those examples illustrate the point that at some magic moment in time, each of these pieces of technology crossed a mental and emotional barrier to become well loved, or at least, psychologically needed.

What causes this fanatical response to some products and not others? From the point of view of a technology start-up, who is building some of the next generation technology, the answer to this question is something we want to learn. How do we cross this chasm to make our product Reemo™ be the next item that if someone ever lost or left home without, would take precedence over our well-being to be reunited with it.

I think it starts something like this ... I see a new product or technology and think “hey that’s kind of cool, it’s neat and novel, but what does it do for me that has not been done before or better?” Or “can it help me with something that I have just resigned myself to accept as the norm or a limitation?” The later of these are the thoughts that create the real “ah-ha” breakthrough technologies.

I did not know when I got my first smartphone that it would grow to become a wanted new appendage. At first I thought this is a cool phone; makes calls and can help me keep up with emails. Then it grew on me and boy did it grow, to the point that I, just as many others, felt I could not be without it for more than a couple of hours with out feeling “weird.”

A computer mouse invokes a similar feeling. I started using computers when I was a kid. My first one was an Apple IIE and I thought it was awesome. Most of it ran off basic and you had to learn and know how to use the commands to get it to work. Installing a new game was at least a half hour event, but I loved it all. Why? Because I did not know any better.

The first time I got to use a mouse it was weird. Why wouldn’t I just use the commands the same way that I always had? Then, a little while after using the mouse, it started to become much more compelling and easier to use. Soon I could not think of using the computer with out one. Then for the next 30 years of my life, that is pretty much how it went.

The goal of any new technology is to provide a compelling first use case; a case that makes users go from “hey that’s cool” to “count me in.” We are looking to grow this with Reemo users as well. Give users upfront obvious benefits and allow the technology to grow with them.

So how then do we grow that feeling for the masses? How do we get our newly loved product to go mainstream? How do we get as many people as possible feeling that they cannot live without this new technology? No matter which way you slice it; the most compelling way to do this is via brand advocates. Growing a cult-like group of people who embrace your product is the cornerstone.

A very important part of building brand advocates is enabling them to have a voice back to, not only the company, but also to the community at large. They need to know that their voice matters. We not only want would like to hear from them, we as a company need to hear from them. We want them to be thrilled with not only what the device and technology is today, but also what it can become in the near future. There is no better or faster way to grow technology than through a group of ardent technology/product/brand evangelists. So here we are at the beginning, looking to grow our technology and grow the Reemo brand to be something amazing. Both wearable technology and home automation are in their infancy. It is not a matter of if, but just how big is this Internet of Things world going to be.

Are you one of them? The early adopter, the one with their eye ever on the future, a dreamer, a doer, the risk taker, the one who is tired of accepting reality as we know it, but want to forge a new reality? If so, we are looking for you! If you are ready to help grow, build and ultimately help others fall in love with new cutting edge technology, we not only want to hear from you, we need to hear from you!

Please go to http://www.getreemo.com/reemo-developers-program/

Tell us how you feel and why you would want to use Reemo. Sign up for updates to stay in the loop. We will be selecting one early user over the next 60 days to be one of our Alpha Testers.