Telsyte Forecast Smartwatch Bounceback
According to a new study by technology analyst firm Telsyte, smartwatches are starting to make their way into Australian consumer’s shopping lists and sales this holiday season.
Findings detailed in Telsyte’s Australian Smartphone & Wearable Devices Market Study 2016-2020 shows smartwatch sales grew by 89 per cent in H1 2016 compared to H1 2015, and now make up one third of the smart wearable device category.
Overall, more than 1 million smart wearable devices were sold during the same period.
Telsye found the Apple Watch to be the leading smartwatch brand with greater than 50 per cent market share followed by Samsung Gear and Fitbit Blaze.
“As smartphone replacement cycles have lengthened, consumers are turning to other gadgets and smartwatches have started to capture the imagination,” Telsyte Managing Director, Foad Fadaghi says.
“We might be seeing the beginning of a substitution effect where consumers are choosing a smartwatch over a new smartphone,” Fadaghi says.
Telsyte estimates that one in three smart wearables sold in the first half of 2016 were smartwatches compared to less than a quarter in 2015.
According to the firm, the major factors driving this risee in demand include price reductions, increased availability, more stylish design, a rise in contactless payments like (Android, Apple and Samsung Pay) and an increased focus by customers on health and fitness.
The killer apps for early adopters of smartwatches seem to be fitness apps and mobile payments,” Fadaghi says.
Telsyte forecasts 37 per cent of Australians will be wearing a smart wearable (both bands and smartwatches) by 2020, with a further increases in sales in 2017 and 2018 driven following the arrival of a second generation Apple Watch, continued price decreases and more uptake of mobile payments on Apple and Android compatible wearables.