While wearable technology has been utilised in vertical sectors such as the military and healthcare industries for many years, ongoing advances have triggered a major resurgence of the concept, particularly among the consumer community. So says Dubai-based SNS Research in a new report.
Key enabling technologies including low cost sensors, wireless connectivity, active materials and energy have converged to make wearable technology mainstream. With the continued miniaturisation of enabling technologies, wearable devices have hit the mass market in a diverse variety of form factors, ranging from glasses to even jewellery.
Driven by the ability to interconnect with key modern trends of healthcare, fitness, messaging and socialisation, the wearable technology ecosystem is attracting significant levels of interest. Companies as varied as smartphone OEMs, mobile operators, health insurers and retailers are circling the ecosystem alongside tiny start-ups, all vying for a stake.
SNS Research estimates that wearable device shipments will grow at a CAGR of 29% between 2016 and 2020. By 2020, wearable devices will represent a market worth US$40 Billion with over 240 million annual unit shipments.
The Wearable Technology Ecosystem: 2016 – 2030 – Opportunities, Challenges, Strategies, Industry Verticals & Forecasts report presents an in-depth assessment of the wearable technology ecosystem including key market drivers, challenges, investment potential, consumer & vertical market opportunities, use cases, future roadmap, value chain, case studies, vendor market share and strategies.
The report also presents forecasts for wearable device shipments and revenue from 2016 through to 2030. The forecasts are further segmented for 7 device form factor submarkets, 7 vertical markets, 6 regions and 73 countries.
The report comes with an associated Excel datasheet suite covering quantitative data from all numeric forecasts presented in the report.
Among other key findings are that:
- Leading smartphone OEMs, Apple and Samsung, are replicating their success in the OS powered smart watch arena with a combined market share of nearly 75%.
- As wearable device OEMs seek to minimise dependence on hardware sales, new business models are beginning to emerge, particularly in the enterprise space. For example, specialist vendors such as Catapult are offering subscription based services to sports teams, which combine wearable sensors, cloud-based software and analytics.
- SNS Research estimates that wearable devices will help mobile operators drive over $13 Billion in service revenue by the end of 2020, following a CAGR of nearly 32% between 2016 and 2020.
- The market is ripe for acquisitions of pure-play wearable technology startups, as competition heats up between consumer and vertical centric OEMs.
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