Ex-OpenFeint and Gree VP of Product Surfaces with New Context Aware Software Platform for Wearable Applications
San Francisco, CA (PRWEB) December 19, 2013 -- Jakob Wilkenson, founding engineering lead and first employee at OpenFeint, today announced that he has founded a new company within Peter Relan’s Studio 9+ Accelerator (http://studio9plus.com/). Awear, the first context aware software platform for wearable computing applications, will provide a consumer facing app and developer platform starting early next year.
“We are thrilled to have the opportunity to support Jakob in his mission to create an inflection in the wearables market and really deliver on the promise of these new devices,” said Peter Relan, founder and chief mentor of 9+. “Google Now has shown the potential of context intelligence. We believe Jakob has the right vision and experience to build a platform across all wearable devices and operating systems."
With the formation of this new venture, Jakob Wilkenson is bringing his years of experience in both the mobile and consumer markets to create a wearables app ecosystem that delivers intelligent and contextual user experiences. Awear's strategy is two-pronged:
● First, to deliver a consumer interface that harnesses the potential of wearables through context aware experiences.
● Then provide a platform that will empower app developers to extend their existing smartphone apps to user experiences tailored for the limited form factors inherent to wearables, intelligently surfacing the right app experience at the right time.
With minimal work, developers will be able to leverage Awear’s on-demand context intelligence to predictively meet user needs. Users will benefit from true "ease of access" and developers will drive re-engagement through contextual use cases.
“The wearable market today is not unlike the smartphone market pre-2007, with devices and applications that give a glimpse of the technology’s potential but that miss broad market appeal,” said Jakob Wilkenson, founder of Awear. “By adding context awareness to all wearable devices, we are going to unlock their power and open a new wave of opportunities for consumers and developers alike.”
Jakob was most recently at GREE, a leading mobile social gaming network with a reach of over 200 million users worldwide, where he was the company’s VP of Product. He joined GREE from OpenFeint (which GREE acquired for $104M in 2011) and was the company’s first hire in 2008.
About Awear
Founded by Jakob Wilkenson and with backing from Peter Relan’s Studio 9+ Accelerator, Awear is the first context aware platform for wearable computing. The company is building a consumer facing application for smartwatches, including Pebble, as well as a developer platform to bring millions of smartphone apps to wearables.
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