The International Data Corporation (IDC) has forecast steep growth for wearables over the coming years, with smartwatches boosting the market.The IDC has forecast that the worldwide wearable device market will reach 111.1 million units shipped in 2016, up 44.4 per cent from 2015, by 2019 reaching 214.6 million units.
“The most common type of wearables today are fairly basic, like fitness trackers, but over the next few years we expect a proliferation of form factors and device types,” Jitesh Ubrani, IDC Mobile Device Trackers senior research analyst, commented.
“Smarter clothing, eyewear and even hearables (ear-worn devices) are all in their early stages of mass adoption.
“Though at present these may not be significantly smarter than their analog counterparts, the next generation of wearables are on track to offer vastly improved experiences and perhaps even augment human abilities.”
Smartwatches are forecast to reach 34.3 million units shipped in 2016, up from the 21.3 million units this year, by 2019 reaching 88.3 million units.
“In a short amount of time, smartwatches have evolved from being extensions of the smartphone to wearable computers capable of communications, notifications, applications and numerous other functionalities,” Ramon Llamas, IDC wearables team research manager, stated.
“The smartwatch we have today will look nothing like the smartwatch we will see in the future. Cellular connectivity, health sensors, not to mention the explosive third-party application market, all stand to change the game and will raise both the appeal and value of the market going forward.”
Llamas added that smartwatch platforms will be leading the evolution.
“As the brains of the smartwatch, platforms manage all the tasks and processes, not the least of which are interacting with the user, running all of the applications and connecting with the smartphone,” he commented.
“Once that third element is replaced with cellular connectivity, the first two elements will take on greater roles to make sense of all the data and connections.”
Apple’s watchOS will be a market leader throughout the IDC’s forecast, having “become the measuring stick against which other smartwatches and platforms are compared”. watchOS is forecast to ship 13 million units in 2015, capturing a 61.3 per cent market share, and to ship 45.2 million units in 2019, capturing a 51.1 per cent market share.
“While there is much room for improvement and additional features, there is enough momentum to keep it ahead of the rest of the market,” the IDC states of watchOS.
Android Wear, meanwhile, is forecast to capture a 15.2 per cent market share this year, shipping 3.2 million units, and a 38.8 per cent market share in 2019, shipping 34.3 million units.
“Android/Android Wear will be a distant second behind watchOS, even as its vendor list grows to include technology companies (Asus, Huawei, LG, Motorola and Sony) and traditional watchmakers (Fossil and Tag Heuer),” the IDC states.
“The user experience on Android Wear devices has been largely the same from one device to the next, leaving little room for OEMs to develop further and users left to select solely on price and smartwatch design.”
