Apple Watch is disrupting the ‘Interruption Economy’

“If the Apple Watch has taught me anything, it’s that all smartwatches are going to require us as product developers, marketers, and publishers to fundamentally reconsider our notion of interruptions and the role they play in how we communicate and engage with consumers,” Charles Teague writes for VentureBeat.

“For far too long, interruptions have formed the currency of digital marketing. Being immersed in the tech industry, I’ve coined the phrase ‘the Interruption Economy’ to describe the incessant stream of disruptions designed to prod us all into action. Newsletters, coupons, promotions, reminders, alerts, spam, and other notifications and communications, which were once easily overlooked in our inboxes or on our phones, are now nuisances when they come from the wrist,” Teague writes. “These interruptions should be thought of as economic in the sense that interruptions are a consumable resource. Each interruption has a cost and a value. When the value doesn’t exceed the cost of the interruption, we end up with dissatisfied and frustrated consumers. ”

Here are the types of interruptions that will prevail:
• Give me less talk and more action. Who cares if you are having a sale if I can’t buy it on my wrist?
• Make it personal. Want a great example of an app doing it right? Download Dark Sky…
• Use data to make me smarter.

Read more in the full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: With Apple Watch, it’s necessary to customize your notifications and glances in order for the device to be its most useful. It is Apple’s most personal device ever, after all.

17 Comments

    1. Prime example of a 1st-world problem.

      Question for you… did you feel frustrated by Passbook before the Apple Watch existed? How about before Passbook existed? Will you feel frustrated by Apple Watch once Cerebral Payment technology is invented? Some advice, just smile and be thankful for the tremendous convenience that technology brings to your life. After all, you are financially capable enough to be buying from Starbucks. There’s plenty of people that aren’t.

      1. A major point of technological advancements is to make life easier and reduce friction. I want my Apple Watch and iPhone to ultimately obviate the need to even carry house or car keys and my wallet. I know that is the future they see.

      2. Cerebral payment will only arrive because of people who want better. Those who smile and give thanks for what they have will drive nothing forward. And this ‘first world problem’ phrase always annoys me. What problems do you expect first world people to have? Or should we all sit down and stop because we’ve arrived?

  1. ” I took myself off hundreds of lists,”

    stopped really reading when I read that.
    who puts himself on “hundreds of lists” ?
    do I really want to be advised by someone who is dumb enough to do that?

    I remember when the old KGB ceased to exist (before it was reorganized under a new name), they found a giant KGB warehouse of collected information, tens of millions of reports in crates including from citizens spying on their neighbours etc. Most of it UNREAD. The problem was TOO MUCH INFO so they couldn’t digest it. Instead of being effective collecting too much info ground the KGB to a halt. (of course today spy orgs have computers to sort the data but still its a good lesson to remember. There’s random info collecting and there’s being effective. )

    1. It’s not that simple. When you get engaged with companies these days, you quite often end up on their mailing lists, without your express permission or knowledge. So it becomes necessary to remove yourself from those lists. Trust me, I’m in the same situation… constantly unsubscribing from mailing lists that I never expressly signed up for. Doesn’t mean I’m not interested in doing business with the companies behind the lists.

    1. What a disgusting contribution to the public record. Not only is the author of that article deliberately trying to manipulate people into seeing things his way, many of the people commenting are a poor example of a country’s population. They are proud to call themselves American’s when they speak with such vitriol?

      1. LOL. Every persuasive article MANIPULATES people into seeing things his own way. How is being vitriolic a poor example of patriotism? Seriously, go read Patrick Henry or Thomas Paine and tell me how vitriol makes you less American. Your logic is 100% incorrect and your weakness is revolting.

  2. A couple of weeks ago I bought a bread bin.

    I made the mistake of buying it online

    Now I am hit every five minutes with ads/emails/ notifications/messages etc asking me whether I would like to buy a bread bin.

    I bought one already!! Just f*** off!

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