Shipments of connected wearables reached 19 million in 2014, up from 5.9 million devices in the previous year, according to a new report from Berg Insight. Growing at a CAGR of 54.7%, total shipments of smart watches, smart glasses, fitness and activity trackers, people monitoring and safety devices, and medical devices as well as other wearable devices are forecasted to reach 168.2 million units in 2019.
Bluetooth will remain the primary connectivity option in the coming years, though some 16.6 million of the wearables shipments in 2019 forecasted to incorporate embedded cellular connectivity, mainly in the smart watch, and people monitoring and safety categories.
Fitness and activity trackers present the largest device category, with shipments reaching 13 million units this year. The market leading vendors Fitbit, Jawbone and Garmin have in the past year been joined by an abundance of companies including major players from the smartphone industry such as LG, Huawei, Microsoft, Samsung, Sony and Xiaomi which have released fitness and activity trackers.
Smart watches are already the second largest category of connected wearables and sales will pick up considerably in 2015.“This product category is now facing fierce competition from smart watches that have activity tracking features,” said Johan Svanberg, Senior Analyst, Berg Insight. “Decreasing prices and new form factors will still enable dedicated fitness & activity trackers to reach shipments of 42.0 million units in 2019.”
Smart watches are already the second largest category of connected wearables and sales will pick up considerably in 2015. The Apple Watch will enter the market and other major smartphone vendors will launch next generation Android Wear devices next year, with traditional watch vendors poised to join the market in the coming years.
Improved devices available in different price segments will drive adoption in the next five years, and smart watches is predicted to become the largest device category by the end of the forecast period.
Smart glasses are poised to become the third largest of connected wearables in the next five years.When it comes to smart glasses, their shipments have so far been very modest, but promising use cases in specific markets such as enterprise and medical will enable this category to become the third largest of connected wearables in the next five years.
“The opportunities are plentiful – improved imaging capability together with hands-free operation, real-time communication and augmented reality functionality would for example make smart glasses a serious contender on the action camera market”, said Mr. Svanberg.
In the medical industry, wearables such as cardiac rhythm management devices, ECG monitors, mobile Personal Emergency Response Systems (mPERS) and wearable computers are already common. In other areas, miniaturized electronics, low power wireless connectivity and cloud services have inspired a wide range of new connected wearables such as authentication and gestures wristbands, notification rings, smart motorcycle helmets and smart gloves.
“Most of these products are still experimental, but in a few years’ time there will be many examples of new successful devices on the market”, concluded Mr. Svanberg.