Apps, Apps Everywhere Apps

In late Q2 of this year we were hard at work finalizing design elements related to the release of our EcoView Residential product when someone in the team suggested the concept of "Apps" for the touchscreen page set. Its not the first time that we have considered incorporating this popular paradigm into the residential product, but a set of circumstances related to supporting extended features such as weather, traffic, etc. led us to finally adopt this approach moving forward. We are currently set to release EcoView Residential on Sept 1 of this year and the production screen set will include an EcoView Apps page where future content will be available. Users will be able to log into the EcoView Residential web portal and select the Apps that they would like to have available. Apps are essentially software components that will be managed and delivered by our Internet server system.

Initially I saw little value in introducing the Apps concept into our EcoView Commercial screens but recently the idea has gained momentum and we are now working on adding this feature to our commercial product as well. Obviously Apps like weather, traffic, etc. have little appeal for a touchscreen located in a place of business, but a little brainstorming revealed at least one compelling App that would make sense in a restaurant, convenience store or retail shop. This first commercial App will consist of an employee time clock interface where employees can key-in their ID upon arriving at and leaving work. Our Internet server systems will record this data and make it available to management in the form of reports and down-loadable files. This is essentially an Internet-enabled version of the old mechanical punch-clock units that are still widely used today. We are currently vetting out at least one more App to introduce to our EcoView Commercial product - stay tuned for more details.

Much like Apps found in other products (i.e. smart phones), EcoView Apps will be consist of a mixture of free and paid add-on features. Some will simply be information displays, such as weather and traffic and some will be full blown independent applications such as the punch-clock App described above. In most, if not all, cases the product owner will be able to select which Apps are available at the touchscreen. This will be done through the associated product web portals.

I have included a mocked-up screenshot of the EcoView Residential Apps screen in this post. Note that the content providers shown are for concept/illustrative purposes only and do not represent Apps that are currently available as part of the EcoView product. In some cases commercial relationships with these providers are yet to be established.