The Wearables Market – Some Overview Stats

Here are some interesting INDUSTRY METRICS (Source: Valencell.com) for the wearables industry. Scroll down to the bottom for some not-so-surprising comments of particular relevance to sports watches

THE WEARABLE MARKET IS BOOMING

• Gartner projects the wearable fitness devices will be a $5 billion market by 2016.
• IHD predicts there were 84 million wearable devices in the market last year, and the total number will top 120 million by 2019.
• Canalys predicts 17M wearable bands will ship this year (2014).
• IDC estimates that this year, more than 19 million wearable computing devices will ship, tripling the number shipped last year. By 2018, IDC predicts, shipments will swell to about 112 million.
• The global wearable computing market will grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 43.4% from around $5 billion forecast for 2013 to $9.2 billion in 2014 and more than $30.2 billion forecast for 2018.1
• IDC predicts that the worldwide wearable computing devices market reach a total of 19.2 million units in 2014.
• IDC believes that the runway for smart wearables is long, and it will not be until 2016 that we begin to see millions of units shipping.2

CONSUMERS ARE TRACKING FITNESS ACTIVITIES

• 37% of online US consumers anticipate purchasing fitness technology in the next 12 months.3
• More than half of online US consumers have used a fitness technology in the past year.4
• A review of recent studies published in February 2014 in The Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research concluded that the use of GPS and heart rate monitors and similar technology by soccer, cricket, rugby and hockey players could result in “significant improvements in the preparation, training and recovery aspects of field-based team sports.”
• According to Nielson’s Connected Life Report, fitness band owners rank accuracy (70 percent) and battery life (64 percent) as the most important attributes of their wearable devices.

1 BCC Research

2 https://web.archive.org/web/20150910030846/http://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=247318

3 Consumer Electronics Association report

4 Ibid.