The wearable tech industry is forecast to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 19 percent to reach $54bn by 2023, according to a new report from leading data analytics company, GlobalData. The study, titled Wearable Tech – Thematic Research, claims that growth in the consumer wearables market will be largely driven by sales of smartwatches, which are increasingly becoming more popular compared to fitness trackers.
As per the report, the popularity of smartwatches is largely because of the wide range of features they offer, including cellular connectivity, health monitoring and contact-less payment, while fitness trackers are falling behind because of their limited capabilities. The industry, which was worth was worth nearly $23bn in 2018, is dominated squarely by Apple, thanks to the success of its Apple Watch. However Huawei, Google, Samsung and Xiaomi are also well-positioned to take advantage of the impending boom in the sector, said the report.
Meanwhile, smart earwear, or hearables, are also becoming more popular with the emergence of devices that incorporate voice-activated virtual assistants such as Apple’s Siri and Google’s Assistant. “Hearables also have the potential to match, or even exceed, the performance of smartwatches when it comes to providing health monitoring services”, according to Ed Thomas, the Principal Analyst for Technology Thematic Research.
Meanwhile, the report further notes that enterprise adoption of wearable tech is also increasing, thanks to the healthcare, logistics, insurance, fintech and defense sectors. That being the case, Thomas says he expects enterprise use of such technology to increase significantly in the years ahead. According to him, “Over the next few years, wearable devices will become smarter, as they incorporate technologies like artificial intelligence and augmented reality and so their relevance, particularly to enterprise users across industries, will only increase”.
