Wearables have been a hot topic over the last year or so. In recent months we have seen more and more tech giants getting around to launching wearable computer hardware and the wave of releases is only going to get stronger in H2 this year with all the VR headsets waiting in the wings.
IDC updated its Worldwide Quarterly Wearable Device Tracker yesterday to take into account new trends and market observations. The market research specialist organisation now predicts that 72.1 million wearable devices will be shipped in 2015. This figure represents a huge 173 per cent leap over last year's 26.4 million unit shipment figure for the industry. Looking further ahead IDC predicts over 155 million wearables to ship in the year 2019.
The main impetus behind wearable adoption is due to basic wearable demand, according to IDC. "Vendors like Fitbit and Xiaomi have helped propel the market with their sub-$100 bands, and IDC expects this momentum will continue throughout 2015," said Jitesh Ubrani, an IDC senior research analyst. However next year there is expected to be some change, "We expect smart wearables, those capable of running third party apps, to take the lead in 2016." Ubrani went on to name-check the Apple Watch and Microsoft Hololens products as being particularly significant in the next year or so.
In recent wearable technology news we note the following:
- Oculus held a launch event for the Rift headset and revealed close development links with Microsoft.
- There was an Nvidia patent uncovered for what might be an upcoming SHIELD VR headset.
- Valve started to ship the HTC Vive headsets to Steam VR developers.
- The E3 games show this week wowed attendees thanks to demonstrations of hardware such as the Microsoft HoloLens and Sony Project Morpheus.
- Intel coughed up around $175m for Recon Instruments earlier this week.
- The Apple Watch, which was supposed to single-handedly set light to the wearables market rocket, actually became available to buy in stores only a couple of days ago.
- Rumours bubbled up that the Apple Watch 2 will include a FaceTime camera and iPhone-free Wi-Fi connectivity – becoming less dependent upon your iPhone's proximity.
