In the past few years, the Wearable Technology Market has made a huge jump out of the trial and error phase and into the hands of hundreds of thousands of eager consumers, with hundreds of product launches this year alone.
With consumers already spending hundreds (sometimes thousands depending on the product), it shouldn’t be surprising that vendor competition has skyrocketed. `
With the Wearable Tech Expo coming to a close later today, we thought we’d take a look at some of the major companies involved in the market to see just how thick the competition is.
Fragmented Market for Wearable Technology
As the market stands, the presence of several small and large players has caused severe fragmentation. Most wearable device developers face several challenges such as meeting consumer demand for trendy wearable devices at low cost, essentially creating a price war.
Moreover, these companies are positioning their brand in the respective market segment, such as Google Glass with several established eyewear companies. So currently, most consumer wearable device providers do not have a very wide product portfolio.
In addition, most wearable device providers are focusing on the US market, which has a large number of early adopters and consumers. Most wearable device providers are struggling to maintain quality in the face of severe competition.
Vendors are also finding it difficult to combine purpose, style, size, and placement of devices from consumers in varying demographics. In North America, the increasing number of new players with innovative solutions that are entering the market is further intensifying the competition.
Wearable Tech Giants
A few days ago, we posted our list of the Top 116 Wearable Technology Companies and the Products They Offer. But while there are hundreds of companies that have recently entered the Wearable Technology Market, only six stand out as “market giants”.
- Fitbit
- Jawbone
- Nike
- Samsung
- Sony
All six of these companies are extremely well-established in the tech world (even without looking at their wearables portfolios). So why is the competition between these companies so thick?
Current Wearable Applications Market Landscape
While the devices vary from company to company, the wearable applications stay virtually the same. For example, though Sony and Samsung have both developed smartwatches, both have similar features which compliment a user’s existing smartphone to improve ease-of-use.
In fact, most companies that have entered the market targeted only two areas:
Lifestyle Wearables
The Lifestyle segment of the Global Consumer Smart Wearable Technology market is expected to witness steady growth during the forecast period. This segment accounted for over 30 percent of the overall market share in 2013 and is expected to witness steady growth during the period 2013-2015 because of the rapid uptake of this technology by early adopters.
However, the revenue from this segment is expected to decline marginally during the period 2015-2017 despite a revenue increase. The main reason for this will be a decline in the ASP of wearable devices for lifestyle applications. Though the number of device shipments will increase significantly during the period 2016-2017, there will be a decline in the revenue contribution from this segment.
During the period 2017-2018, the market revenue as well as growth rate will increase because of the increased adoption of wearable devices in the APAC region. As a result of the sharp decline in the ASP of lifestyle wearable devices during the period 2015-2017, the shipments and adoption of wearable devices by the youth population in the APAC region will increase rapidly.
Thus, despite the decline in ASP, the Lifestyle segment is expected to achieve overall growth. In addition, innovations in the design of wearable devices for lifestyle applications are also expected to enhance market growth.
Fitness and Sports Wearables
The Fitness and Sports segment of the Global Consumer Smart Wearable Technology market is expected to witness steady growth during the forecast period. Like the lifestyle segment, fitness and sports wearables accounted for over 30 percent of the overall market share in 2013.
Though there has been a decline in the ASP of fitness and sports devices in recent years, there has not been an increase in the adoption or total shipments of such devices because users are confused and are unable to decide which device to purchase (because there are so many to choose from).
Indeed, only a few wearable devices are recommended by fitness trainers or professionals who have the highest influence on decision making. The purchase of fitness and sports devices is leading to a sharp increase in shipments.
On the other hand, many small and innovative players that offer similar devices with the same functions and features are witnessing a marginal increase in their shipments. However, this trend is expected to change during the period 2015-2017 mainly because of the anticipated decline in the ASP of wearable devices for fitness and sports as well as the growing adoption among individual users who are health conscious.
The market is also expected to witness a decline in its growth rate during the period 2017-2018 as a result of the steady decline in the ASP.
Healthcare Wearables on the Rise
Though most companies have developed wearables for fitness and lifestyle applications, many have also entered the market to develop wearable technology for the healthcare sector.
In fact, healthcare wearables is expected to be the fastest growing segment in the Wearable tech market, growing at an anticipated CAGR of over 41 percent through to 2018.
With a growing aging population worldwide, the number of age-related diseases is also on the rise. This has opened doors for wearable tech developers because of the virtually endless number of wearable healthcare applications.
Smart wearable devices for remote patient monitoring can provide qualitative and convenient healthcare services to the elderly at a low cost. Wearable devices provide a reliable way to keep track of elderly patients.
For instance, at home, relatives and caregivers can provide aging patients with various mobile devices such as RTLS tags and location-tracking devices that constantly monitor the patient’s status. These devices automatically send real-time alerts to healthcare service providers in the event of an accident, a fall, or the patient unexpectedly leaving a safe area.
Also, wearable devices enable aging or physically disabled patients to contact their physicians instantly. In addition, they provide peace of mind to the family and friends of those with degenerative diseases such as dementia.
As more and more companies are beginning to develop wearable technologies for healthcare applications, intense competition has already begun.
What about Wearables for Business?
We’ve discussed how vendors are developing products for lifestyle, fitness and healthcare applications, but what about business?
As the market stands, many products have potential business applications, but not many are made specifically for office use.
Recently, Dr. Chris Brauer, a senior lecturer in the Institute of Management Studies and Founder of the Centre for Creative & Social Technologies (CAST) at Goldsmiths, University of London, guest wrote an article for CNN which discusses his recent research about wearable technology and business productivity:
“One of the most intriguing findings of the initial phase of the research was the way early adopter companies were starting to explore the power of wearable tech in the workplace. Several companies reported issuing laptops, mobile phones, and fitness bands to all employees as part of standard corporate kit.”
Not many companies have jumped on the wearable tech train at this stage, as most technologies are still too new (and expensive) to issue to employees, even just for senior management. But still, there is a gap between the integration of wearable technology with current business tech.
Blending Wearables with Big Data
Many companies are currently experiencing a huge problem: they’ve tackled the big data market to improve operations, but now don’t have the resources to analyse the brunt of that data, meaning valuable insights get overlooked.
Dr. Brauer believes that wearable technology could be the key to unlocking the unrecovered “secrets” from a company’s big data.
“Three billion gigabytes of big data are generated every day, but only one-half of one percent of this data gets analyzed and put to work.
Wearable tech data from employees and customers are an inevitable key ingredient in the recipes for making sense of big data and the role of emerging technologies in shaping our cities, societies, markets and economies.”
Different Workers Need Different Wearables
Obviously, every company is different, so the wearables for their employees would also likely differ. So what about workers who don’t have desk jobs?
OMsignal developed an undershirt that can track a number of aspects of the wearer’s health from their pulse to their breathing.
In a recent article CNBC article OMsignal’s CEO and co-founder Stephane Marceau said:
“Our view of the ultimate wearable is the thing you’ve been wearing all of your life: clothing. That’s the sort of technology that can be especially useful in a dangerous or disastrous situation.
Think of a firefighter wearing a device like that. You can tell if that person is in trouble, and if communication goes out, you can track them through other means. First responders are already looking at those types of devices.”
