Juniper Research: Smart Wearable Device Shipments To Exceed 100 million by 2017
Gail Chiasson, North American Editor
New findings from Juniper Research, located in Basingstoke, Hampshire, UK, shows that global smart wearable device shipments will more than quadruple by 2017, reaching 116 million units, compared to an estimated 27 million this year.
However, this still suggests that less than 5% of smartphones will be used with such wearables by this time.
This extensive new (third edition) report, ‘Smart Wearables: Fitness, Glasses, Watches, Multimedia, Clothing, Jewellery, Healthcare & Enterprise 2014-2019’, notes that, with technological barriers coming down, larger players in the market are moving beyond devices to produce operating systems and databanks to manage the information generated by wearables.
Recent examples include Google’s Android Wear, Qualcomm’s 2net and Samsung’s Digital Health Initiative.
This is expected to bring an explosion of devices into an already crowded market, as smaller companies focus on producing quality hardware without needing software expertise. As a result, the segment will be less open to truly unique innovations, with software platforms dictating capability. Consequently, independent wearables will remain rare, as manufacturers continue to build their software around a companion smartphone to encourage a dual revenue stream.
Juniper anticipates that increasingly capable smart watches will incorporate multiple sensors, negating the need for separate devices to measure health and fitness biometrics. The report points out that this will cut both ways, as several fitness devices such as the Samsung Gear Fit and Razer Nabu offer notification services in addition to activity tracking, assimilating smart watch capabilities.
The research company believes that it will take until 2017 for more smart watches to be used than fitness wearables. The report looks at eight key segments, including: Sports & Fitness Wearables; Multimedia and Entertainment wearables; Lifestyle Wearables: Smart Clothing, Smart Jewellery; Smart Watches; Smart Glasses; Enterprise wearables; Healthcare wearables; and Military wearables.
Among the key findings are:
- More advanced wearable technologies will be developed first for enterprise and healthcare applications, as these segments have clear use cases that technology can solve;
- Smart wearable device revenues will reach over $53 billion in 2019.
The report also includes a competitive analysis. ie. an expert analysis of the different stakeholders in the value chain, supported by exclusive case studies on selected players and their business strategies.
The entire report is available from Juniper Research, which regularly provides consultancy, analyst reports and industry commentary to the global hi-tech communications sector.
Follow DailyDOOH