Wearable Technology Market to Exceed USD 6 Billion by 2016

The increasing demand for actionable, real-time data in a range of applications is driving strong demand for wearable technology. These are the latest findings of from IMS Research (IMS; Wellingborough, United Kingdom), a provider of market research and consultancy to the global electronics industry.

Current wearable devices are concentrated around a few products, mainly in the healthcare and medical and fitness and wellness application areas. In these areas, there is a greater use-case for wearable technology in order to transmit data such as vital signs and track user performance. By 2016, according to IMS, the penetration of wearable technology is projected to rapidly increase as a wide range of new wearable devices are developed. Such new product areas will include smart watches, smart glasses, sleep sensors, industrial, and military heads-up displays, and hand-worn terminals.

“A six billion dollar market in 2016 is our most conservative forecast which assumes that the adoption of wearable technology will be limited by factors including lack of suitable technology, poor user compliance, and lack of an overall enhanced experience from devices that are wearable as compared to nonwearable products,” said Theo Ahadome, a senior analyst at IMS Research. “In addition, an increasingly self-aware consumer seeks more and more data on their health and fitness, leading to even more rapid expansion in the market for wearable technology.”

Wearable device sales are expected to increase from 14 million items in 2012 to between 39 million and 171 million by 2016. Dominant wearable products currently include continuous glucose monitors, such as from Abbott and Medtronic, activity monitors, such as the Fitbit, the Adidas (Herzogenaurach, Germany) miCoach, and the Nike Fuelband, and fitness and heart-rate monitors, such as from Garmin, Polar, and Suunto (Vantaa, Finland). Future devices that will soon reach the market include Google’s Smart Glasses and the rumored Apple Smart Watch.

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