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The wearables market continues to generate a lot of attention, both positive and negative. Fitness trackers and smart watches remain the flag bearers of the wearables market, seeing growth but at a slower pace than estimated earlier. Fitness trackers are facing a tough road ahead, with the market possibly reaching a saturation point as the addressable market for fitness enthusiasts and casual users starts to reach its limit. Smart watches are catching up with fitness trackers in terms of volumes and continuing to see momentum courtesy of the Apple Watch, while fitness tracker companies like Fitbit are experiencing as much as a 40% drop in revenue over recent quarters. Both smart watches and fitness trackers continue to see market consolidation, with companies like Pebble being acquired by Fitbit and having their product discontinued, while fitness tracker company Jawbone is undergoing liquidation.
Nevertheless, fitness trackers and smart watches remain the largest device segments for wearables, accounting for more than 80% of shipments in 2016, with their share projected to go down to 50% by 2022. Body sensors are expected to be the third largest wearable device segment by 2022, driven largely by wearable patches used in healthcare applications, with body sensor shipments reaching 92.1 million by 2022. Healthcare and health-focused applications in general are seen to be a major driver for the next phase of growth in wearables. Wearable device companies that pivot beyond fitness and activity tracking, toward preventing and managing chronic health conditions like diabetes and heart problems will succeed in the long run. Tractica believes that chronic health management, both in a professional healthcare setting, as well as a general consumer setting, will help wearables break into the mainstream.
This Tractica report quantifies the market size and growth opportunity for wearable devices, including smart watches, smart glasses, fitness trackers, smart clothing, body sensors, wearable cameras, smart headphones, and other wearables. The market data includes device shipments and revenue segmented by world region, application market, and connectivity technology. The application markets covered in this study include consumer, enterprise, industrial, public safety, healthcare, sports, and others. The forecast period extends from 2016 through 2022.
