Ninety-three percent are already exploring wearables, 87 percent believe that wearable technology will have significant impact across their industry within the next five years
APX Labs, the developer of the Skylight platform for enterprise wearable technology, released new findings from a survey titled "The State of Enterprise Wearable Technology." The study reveals findings from IT and business decision makers across multiple industries on the adoption and demand for smart glasses, smart watches and other wearable devices in the enterprise. Among the most surprising results are that 93 percent of those surveyed are already exploring and using wearables and 87 percent believe that wearable technology will have significant impact across their industry within the next five years.
"This survey confirms what we already knew from working with global Fortune 500 companies; that the top firms in every industry are already exploring wearable technology. But we were surprised to see just how quickly respondents expect this next wave of enterprise mobility to become the standard and the breadth of scenarios they are already using it in," said Brian Ballard, CEO and co-founder, APX Labs.
The growth of wearable technology in today's workplace has been broadly recognized by industry analysts. Gartner Research expects smart glasses to realize $1 billion annual cost savings in the field services industry alone, and IMS Research conservatively estimates the wearable technology marketplace to grow to $6 billion by 2016.
Highlights from the survey include:
Behind The Scenes Wearables Are Taking Center Stage
- Nearly every industry has already started using or evaluating wearable tech, which includes smart watches (61 percent), activity trackers (60 percent) indoor location sensors/beacons (52 percent) wearable mobile cameras (48 percent) and smart glasses (42 percent).
- About half the respondents are currently researching or using three or more different types of devices in their organization. In particular, watches and glasses tend to cluster together. Thirty two percent of all companies were using both, and only 29 percent used neither glasses nor watches.
Wearables Are Being Used Across the Enterprise
The uses for wearable technologies are broad as decision makers look at multiple scenarios and job functions for benefits. Eighty-six percent of companies are already working on multiple operational scenarios, with the most common being Inspection/QA, Manufacturing/Assembly and Field Service/Repair.
Survey respondents believe wearables can benefit a large number of employees – about 45 percent of the enterprise's employee base, on average.
Decision makers foresee a wide variety of business benefits, with 90 percent indicating they expect wearable technology to deliver significant benefits in terms of reduced time, effort and re-work required to complete tasks while also providing improved quality, employee safety, and process flexibility.
Smart Glasses Are the Preferred Wearable Device For Hands-on Work
Despite the breadth of available wearable devices, smart glasses remain the most powerful tool for hands-on workers.
More than 50 percent of those surveyed said they have plans for using smart glasses in the upcoming year, a faster projected growth rate than any other device.
Nearly 60 percent of companies that don't currently use smart glasses believe they will be adopted within their company in the future.