Devices for the Wrist - Ecosystems Crucial to Growth of Connected Watches and Bands is a 2014 market research report that examines the high growth opportunity which wrist-worn wearable technologies provide, how the ecosystem is developing, positioning strategies of the key industry players, and the launched and announced products to date. The report provides 5-year projections for shipments and revenue by device segment and global installed base. The analysis is built around a wrist-worn product database of over 70 models, mobile industry forecasts as well as end-user research conducted across several Western European countries and a global survey of over 200 industry players.
Following several decades of false starts, wrist-worn technology is becoming an enormous new opportunity: shipments for wrist-worn devices are expected to grow by nearly sevenfold in 2014 and threefold in the following year. Technology developments, high smartphone penetration rates, new applications and the availability of well-designed, easy-to-use devices are some of the key drivers behind this growth. The variety of products available has ballooned, with different designs, capabilities and brands, but the entry of Apple into the market in 2015 will be the key catalyst for growth. Manufacturers face multiple challenges in developing a smart watch that is attractively designed and balances functionality with the right combination of user interfaces. Furthermore, there is an inherent trade-off between functionality and battery life: typically, technology vendors such as Apple and Samsung favor functionality and have had to develop innovative ways in which the user can interact with the device. Traditional watch manufacturers such as Casio and Citizen prioritize battery life and limit functionality. In between are a broad range of different possibilities to meet different needs and tastes.
There remains significant potential for product development and improvement, particularly as the chipset and technology suppliers improve their products, with a particular focus on improving battery life. Highly functional smart watches will be dominated by the existing smartphone platforms, but there are also opportunities for devices with lower functionality, particularly for the traditional watch manufacturers, for whom typically design comes above functionality. Fitness and health applications will be a key driver for wearables. Many large technology companies are looking at cloud based health services as an important new revenue opportunity. Bluetooth is the connectivity technology of choice today; Wi-Fi drains batteries quickly but enables independent connectivity and could introduce new opportunities, particularly for mobile operators. We expect that NFC will make the biggest impact, opening the door to new applications, particularly in the areas of access control, loyalty, payments and travel.
By 2019, this wrist-worn wearable devices market research is projecting shipments to grow by 13-fold from its 2014 level, with more than 10% of the global population wearing a connected wrist-worn device. While the market is expected to be triggered by the Apple Watch, at the same time lower cost devices will also drive the market as chipset and component prices fall; furthermore, the price of connected bands will fall dramatically as new business models become established. The Devices for the Wrist: Ecosystems Crucial to Growth of Connected Watches and Bands report analyses the wrist-worn wearable device market opportunity, highlighting the key drivers as to why we believe this product category is now ready to develop. It provides a global forecast, based on an analysis of the ecosystem, the products on the market, an industry survey, an end-user panel on top of a deep understanding of the mobile communications industry. Our forecasts include only wrist-worn, wireless-connected devices, segmented into watches and bands, plus a segment for cellular connected devices.
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