HP Inc. to tackle wearables for business

Dive Brief:

HP Inc. sees an untapped opportunity for wearables in businesses.
A project run by the CTO office at HP is now focusing on developing wearable technology, with an emphasis on the enterprise market.
HP is hoping innovation will help the company grow despite stagnant PC and tablet markets.

Dive Insight:

Ron Coughlin, president for personal systems at HP, said there are plenty of consumer wearables, but businesses are still reviewing how best to use them.

"We're learning as we go along," said Coughlin

Business wearables could meet the needs of specific verticals like healthcare, or enrich education and retail experiences, Coughlin said.

Though HP Inc. is a Fortune 100 company, it operates much like a startup, and can therefore be much faster on product development and project execution, Coughlin added.

"It frees us up to work with other system integrators ... who might have hesitated because we were associated and part of the same company as [Hewlett-Packard Enterprise]. We see it as more of an opportunity."

Coughlin didn't say if HP had plans to release a virtual reality headset or similar products.