The smartwatch market has been growing steadily over the last few years, but smart wearables have not become a must-have items like smartphones are for most people.
The International Data Corporation(IDC) expects the growth of wearable devices to continue at around 13.4% over the next five years, with a forecast 219.4 million units to be shipped in 2022, and smart watches will grow even faster, as the company expect the number of shipped units to nearly double to 84 millions in five years.
The biggest growth is expected to be for earwear growing 48% per annum, following by smart clothing, both of which start from a lower user base. Basic wristbands and watches will still grow, but not quite as fast especially for wristbands. In case you wonder that the “others” category includes, the company explains those are devices “that can be clipped to different parts of the body or head-worn devices like the Muse headband, or even smart wristbands (ones that can run third party apps)”.
But as we all know “It’s difficult to make predictions, especially about the future”, so we’ll have to wait a few years to find out how accurate that forecast ends up to be. I believe one of the main downsides of smartwatches is their poor battery life compared to traditional watches, but once NeverChargeTM technology (I made that up) – which could be leverage energy harvesting and/or far-field wireless charging – is properly implemented, I suspect smartwatches will gain more traction, at least with watch users, since one of the main drawback will have gone away.
Via Liliputing
Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.
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