The global wearables market is anticipated to witness significant growth in the coming years owing to high adoption of smart phones and increasing mobile applications. In addition, growing awareness regarding physical fitness among individuals and increasing purchasing power of consumers are expected to increase adoption of these products. High prevalence of chronic diseases and growing geriatric population are likely to drive the market. Wearables are the devices that enable users to monitor their health and physical activity in daily routine. These devices also assist to track several parameters, such as total calories burnt, blood pressure, and heart rate.
Moreover, numerous ongoing innovative projects in electronics and healthcare sector are expected to stimulate the market growth. Wearables devices, including continuous glucose monitoring, ECG monitors, blood pressure monitors, insulin pumps, and hearing aids are extensively employed in healthcare. Smart wearable devices are also used in entertainment sector to experience digital media. For instance, development of VR headsets and AR glasses are likely to witness high demand in entertainment sector. Additionally, wearables find their usage in various industrial applications, such as logistics, packaging and warehouse, and enterprise. They are also likely to gain traction in military and defense owing to high demand for heads-up-display, hand-worn terminals, and smart clothing, wherein miniature sensors are integrated into fabrics.
Furthermore, advancements in technology, such as ease of payment with wearable device, and smartwatches with exciting features, such as capability to interact on social media platform, are expected to boost the market growth. Growing preference for smartwatches over analog devices is expected to drive the market in coming years. For instance, Google recently launched an update for Android smart wearables. The new Android 2.8 update aims to improve watches’ display performance and make reading on the smartwatch simpler than its predecessor.
However, high cost of wearables is expected to restrain the market growth. In addition, data security concerns, and limited battery life and durability are likely to challenge the market in future.
Different types of wearable devices include smartwatches, activity monitors, smart clothing, and patches. Activity monitors hold a prominent share in the market owing to inactive and unhealthy lifestyle of people, growing occurrence of lifestyle diseases, and rising awareness regarding health and fitness among consumers. Home healthcare, remote patient monitoring, and sports and fitness are the major applications associated with the device. Sport and fitness is a leading application owing to growing focus on physical fitness among individuals to improve quality of life.
North America is one of the leading regions in the market followed by Europe. Existence of well-established healthcare infrastructure, technological developments, and presence of prominent market participants are anticipated to foster the regional market growth. Europe is also likely to emerge highly lucrative in forthcoming years. Germany and U.K. are the key contributors to the regional market growth. Asia Pacific is anticipated to witness robust growth in the forthcoming years owing to high penetration of smart phones and widespread usage of internet. Emerging economies, such as China and India, are anticipated to contribute significantly to the regional market growth. India is one of the leading software and services hubs in the world with greater technical expertise.
Some of the key companies operating in the wearables market are Apple Inc.; Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd.; Fitbit Inc.; Xiaomi Inc.; and Garmin Ltd. Companies are making R&D investments in order to strengthen their presence and gain a competitive edge in the market. Moreover, various emerging companies are expected to enter the market in future. For instance, Myntra, an online fashion platform, launched Blink Go, its first smart wearable device that allows users to monitor their fitness parameters. It was built on Myntra Wearables Platform (MWP), allowing creation of different wearables. The device tracks activities, including steps, calories, distance, sleep, and heart rate sensor, and has additional features, such as Multi Tracker Support and Sleep Goals and Tools. The device can also be synced with smartphones to get standard alerts and notifications.
