Wearables To Smash Through Global $100 Billion Ceiling

Updated 20 November 2019 to include FutureSource response.

The wearable market is predicted to smash through the $100 billion ceiling by 2023, according to a new industry report that has placed the industry in the ‘growth zone’.

According to the Wearables Market Analysis and Commentary industry report by FutureSource Consulting, the wearable market has managed to escape the ‘general plateau’ experienced by the ‘wider consumer electronics market’ growing from a retail value of $22.5 billion in 2017 to a 2019 forecast of $50 billion.

Stephen Mears, a Research Analyst at Futuresource Consulting, predicts the wearable market to account for around 10% of all consumer electronics revenues by 2023.

Futuresource attributes the ‘ever-growing raft of features’ as the reason why tech is moving away from the pocket and onto the wrist or into the ear.

Currently fitness tracking is seen as a must-have feature in the short term, however, the challenge will be to generate new use cases for wearable technology.

One such idea has been seen in Google’s collaboration with Levi’s to create a smart jacket with gesture controls on the left cuff.

Integrated smart clothing could be the way of the future, with many technology businesses tinkering with augmented reality glasses, with baby steps being made by Bose with the AR Sunglasses.

Smartwatches, in particular, have been central to the current growth, with kids watches identified as an emerging category poised for expansion, with the Chinese market already establishing youth-aimed wearables.

For the Asia Pacific region, excluding China, a 40% increase by 2023 is forecasted for the wearable market, which will account for 20% of the global market share.

Curiously the report predicts the increase in market share by the Asia Pacific ‘will come at the expense of China’s share’.

Stephen Mears of FutureSource elaborated on this statement in an email to ChannelNews saying, ‘when we say that Asia Pacific’s growth will diminish China’s overall share, what we mean is that the growth of the broader APAC region will exceed growth seen in China and therefore diminish China’s market size relative to the rest of APAC’.

‘China is still growing, but is generally further along as a market compared to other nations in the region.’