Proliferation of Wearable Devices

Wearable devices are products that are worn on the body of an individual which tends to the sense the motion, environment, and other characteristics that helps the individuals in improving the quality of life. The idea of wearable devices is very much related to smartphones – which has now grown to become an indispensable part of an individual. All the information that an individual need is a click away with the increasing innovation focusing on making life as easy as possible.  However, smartphones are now used as a foundation for making other devices connected. For example, the advent of the Internet of Things (IoT) has led to the proliferation of a number of connected devices such as a smartwatch, smart glass, fitness tracker, and smart clothing among others. Thus, the wearable devices market size is estimated to be valued at US$24.486 billion in 2019 and is projected to grow at a CAGR of 21.63% to reach US$80.438 billion in 2025. In fact, the smartwatch and fitness trackers are expected to share a growing proportion of data with the smartphones, with the total number of connected devices globally projected to grow from 19.24 billion units in 2016 to 85.93 billion units in 2023 (source: Knowledge Sourcing Intelligence Analysis).

Number of Connected Devices, in Billion Units

Source: Knowledge Sourcing Intelligence Analysis

 

Market Development

• OPPO unveiled its smartwatch in China in March 2020 and is expected to be launched in India as well.

• Syska launched its first smartwatch in India, announcing its entrance in the Indian wearable device market in July 2020.

• In July 2020, Garmin Ltd announced the expansion of its solar charging technology to its popular adventure smartwatches series. The company has also made available the Garmin Forerunner 245 Music Japan Edition in Malaysia as well. 

• Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. announced the launch of its wearable chipsets – Snapdragon Wear 4100+ and Snapdragon Wear 4100 in July 2020 that is based on 12nm process technology and has the potential to significantly boost the performance of the smartwatch.

• Huawei announced in March 2020 the launch of its first smart glass collection that has been developed in collaboration with the South Korean fashion brand Gentle Monster.

• Google acquired an Amazon backed company North that is primarily into making smart glass and human-computer interfaces in June 2020 in order to enable them to make strides in the smart glass market. 

• In March 2020, Fitbit, Inc. launched Fitbit Charge 4 that is considered to be its most advanced health and fitness tracker with a built-in GPS, Spotify, Active Zone Minutes and Sleep Tools among others. 

• A Gurgaon, India based firm Staqu launched an AI-powered smart glass in 2018 that has been primarily developed to aid the law and enforcement agency in combating crime.

• PVH Corporation’s brand Tommy Hilfiger launched a smart clothing line in 2018 which features an embedded Awear Solution Bluetooth that connects the products to its dedicated apps. 

• In January 2018, DuPont Advanced Materials launched its smart clothing technology under the brand name – DuPont™ Intexar™. It has been primarily developed to deal with sports, fitness, and wellness applications.

5g Technology Is Expected to Make the Difference

The availability of the required infrastructure and presence of key players has been instrumental in promoting the wearable devices market in the United States, which is estimated to be the single largest market in North America. Moreover, key telecom operators like Verizon, T-Mobile, and AT&T began rolling out 5G networks in 2019, with a significant proportion of the population anticipated to have access to the fast network by the end of the first half of 2021. Moreover, it is also predicted that more than half of the U.S population will have devices by the end of 2024 that will be able to connect to the 5G network. In fact, at the global level, it is estimated that the 5G connection will increase from 13 million in 2019 to 1.4 billion, with 5G projected to hold an 11% share among the mobile connection type by the end of 2023 (source: Cisco Annual Report, 2018-2023). Thus, the transition towards a higher speed network is projected to significantly supplement the wearable devices market growth in the coming years.

Asia Pacific Is Projected to Provide High Growth Opportunities

China and Japan hold a significantly large share in this market in the Asia Pacific region. Japan is a developed economy with a high per capita income. The high spending capacity of people, coupled with their focus on staying healthy, is driving the market growth in this country. Moreover, in South Korea, the government announced a 127.2 billion Won budget in 2015 that is to be used for the development of the domestic wearable device industry from 2016 to 2020. Moreover, the City of Sejong and Busan are planning to use connected wearable devices and robotics in the public and home spaces along with the medical facilities to improve the delivery of healthcare services in the country. Simultaneously, a continuous increase in the proportion of the middle-class population in China and India is supporting the market growth. In fact, it estimated that Asia will represent 66% of the global middle-class population and 59% of the middle-class consumption by 2030, in comparison to 28% and 23% respectively in 2009 (source: Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development). Moreover, in India, rising awareness among people regarding the relationship between physical fitness and contraction of diseases, coupled with a high risk of getting catastrophic healthcare shock in the event of contracting a disease is pushing them towards adopting health and fitness regimes, thus boosting the adoption of fitness trackers and smartwatches that records the vital signs and keep the individual informed about the information that can aid them in improving the quality of life.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Siddharth David is a Senior Market Research Analyst at Knowledge Sourcing Intelligence LLP. Siddharth’s expertise lies in offering predictive analysis and an all-inclusive outlook of different industry verticals from both the macro and micro point of view, with the special knack in market sizing and delivering key strategic insights. To read more articles by him, and for more information regarding multiple global markets, visit www.knowledge-sourcing.com.