90 million wearables to ship in 2014

Analysts at ABI Research expect 90 million wearable devices to ship in 2014. As senior analyst Joshua Flood notes, wearable tech will be characterized by a diversity of products, although only those with clear use-cases and target audiences are likely to succeed.

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“The next 12 months will be a critical period for the acceptance and adoption of wearable devices. Healthcare and sports and activity trackers are rapidly becoming mass-market products,” the analyst explained.

“On the flipside, wearable devices like smart watches need to overcome some critical obstacles. Aesthetic design, more compelling use cases, battery life and lower price points are the main inhibitors. How vendors approach these challenges and their respective solutions will affect the wearable market far in the future.”

According to Flood, chipset vendors are beginning to pave the way with interesting wearable reference designs that will allow non-technology OEMs and brands to quickly jump upon the wearable device bandwagon and offer diverse, innovative, unique and stylish solutions.

“While smart glasses could be the starting point moving away from today’s touchscreen smartphones to eyewear devices using a voice interface, pricing, battery life and style will all play crucial roles for market traction,” he continued.

“Due to these limitations, the enterprise sector will be the early target for smart glasses before they are ready for mass-market adoption. [We] expect more than two million smart glasses [to] ship in 2014, [with] the category forecast to grow rapidly from 2015 onwards. Mobile enabling technologies like augmented reality will play a vital part in enhancing smart glass capabilities.”

Indeed, smart glasses and smart watches will account for a relatively small segment of the wearable device market in 2014, with medical, wellness and sports and activity wearable devices expected to provide the bulk of wearable device shipments this year.

“Activity trackers will continue to be the most popular wearable device as people carefully monitor their activity levels and energy output,” Flood added.

“Concerns around weight management and even obesity are the prime drivers behind this wearable device type. The collection and analysis of the captured personal performance data through associated websites and their communities is also a crucial element in building out the use-case.”

Forrester explains Wearables 2.0

Forrester analyst JP Gownder says wearable devices will ultimately change the way workers do their jobs and how consumers manage their lives.

“Every day (and surely this week), I talk to inventors, entrepreneurs and established vendors entering the wearables space. The dynamism I encounter in this space reminds me of the early days of the Web in the late 90s,” Gownder writes in a recent blog post.

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“Of course many wearable computing concepts and executions will fail, as is true with any new technology movement. [However], Wearables 2.0 will weed out some of these false starts and focus on three success factors.”

First, says the analyst, companies must develop more comprehensive business paradigms. Indeed, if Wearables 1.0 was about creating technologies, Wearables 2.0 is all about crafting rich business models.

Next up is finding a way to continue working within existing institutions.

“Selling fitness wearables to consumers one on one through retail channels might have its merits for dedicated exercise enthusiasts, quantified selfers and those who want to lose weight,” Gownder explains.

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“But having doctors, hospitals, insurance companies and corporate wellness programs distribute fitness wearables embeds the information collected into the entire healthcare system… [Clearly], Wearables 2.0 will intersect with the existing institutions of your life in useful ways.”

Last, but certainly not least is creating enterprise value.

“Because of consumerization – the fact that the technology we have at home is often better, faster-moving, more agile, more mobile, etc. than the tech we are issued at work – we tend to assume now that *all* innovation will originate on the consumer side,” he adds.

“Wearables 2.0 will upend that a bit, because the most useful enterprise devices are often highly specialized. Wearables 2.0 will help enterprises provide value to their customers – a key technology benefit in the age of the customer.”

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