Increasingly, wearable technology looks more like the province of the enterprise than it does the consumer. Sure, there are exceptions, but the enterprise is flooding into wearables and, in turn, causing many new developments with the enterprise in mind. APX Labs is one such producer of these new developments, recently releasing Skylight R5 enterprise software system for smartwatches.

Skylight R5 represents several new developments in one handy package. Reports suggest that it not only offers new options in voice control systems, but also a claims-based Active Directory authentication system. There are also new photo capture capabilities that work in high-resolution, and a new work management system known as Workstreams. With Skylight R5, all these tools are brought to Android (News - Alert) Wear devices, and soon, for Apple Watch as well.

The voice control systems are said to be particularly useful for those using smartwatches or even smart glasses, and there are even some signs to suggest that Skylight R5 might make a jump to other tools, as it's described as offering “...a common user experience and a single, manageable back-end across their entire mobile operations”. The use of Workstreams, meanwhile, lets companies focus on workflow generation, which can help keep an office better organized and thus less likely to waste time and money trying to overcome confusion about who should be doing what when.

APX Labs' co-founder and CEO, Brian Ballard, commented on the release: “With this new version, Skylight extends our comprehensive platform for enterprise wearable technology. Using Skylight to support smart watches is a natural progression for our customers and fits our mission to give millions of people the tools to do their work using whatever wearable device best suit their needs.”

Those interested in hearing more out of APX Labs will want to take note of the Wearable Tech Expo, set to hit the Jacob Javits Center in New York City July 13-15. APX Labs' vice president Ed English will be delivering a talk on Monday, July 13 from 4:15 to 4:55 pm entitled “AR & VR in the Enterprise: Changing the Business Process.” The talk will cover how augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) are making inroads with businesses, offering new value in training, field work, and a host of other fronts.

Indeed, AR and VR both have valuable applications, and especially so when incorporated into wearable devices. Imagine field service techs going out into the field with smart glasses that can show how to take apart and rebuild a unit in real time, explaining how to fix it, reconstruct it, etc. But it's not just repairs that can help; imagine sales reps who can see a client's face and immediately reference information about that client right from a smartglasses interface. Imagine physicians who can identify problems based on visual sightings. These are just the start of what wearables coupled with VR and AR can do, and the Wearable Tech Expo will provide plenty more insight into this rapidly changing field.

While there will likely be at least some consumer demand for wearables, the enterprise has certainly taken to this new platform in a big way. With so many options—like APX Labs' Skylight R5—on hand, there likely won't be any shortage of interested users, either.