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Wearable Technology 2016-2026

Markets, players and 10-year forecasts

Brand new for July 2016

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Wearable technology concerns any electronic products that are designed to be worn on the person. In this report, IDTechEx analysts find that the market will be worth over $30bn in 2016, and growing in three stages: 10% annually to over $40bn in 2018, but then accelerating to 23% through to over $100bn by 2023, before slowing to 11% to reach over $150bn by 2026.
 
Global wearable technology forecast summary, including 39 forecast lines covering all prominent products today (e.g. smartwatches, fitness trackers, smart eyewear, smart clothing, medical devices and more), but also to many incumbent products (e.g. headphones, hearing aids, basic electronic watches and more)
 
 
Source IDTechEx
Compiled after three years of dedicated and ongoing research by expert analysts, this report details IDTechEx' s coverage of the wearable technology ecosystem. The report looks at the industry from many different perspectives, with detailed discussion framing core primary research and market forecasting. The report examines the historical context for wearable technology products, looking at key yet contrasting sectors such as medical devices and commodity infotainment items like headphones or electronic watches. It then focuses on key trends today, ranging from societal megatrends (e.g. the aging population), to industry-wide innovation trends (e.g. evolving form factors and interfaces in devices), and finally down to core player-by-player strategies within industry and product verticals.
 
Fuelled by a frenzy of hype, funding and global interest, wearable technology was catapulted to the top of the agenda for companies spanning the entire value chain and world. This investment manifested in hundreds of new products and extensive tailored R&D investigating relevant technology areas. However, the fickle nature of hype is beginning to show, and many companies are now progressing beyond discussing "wearables" to focus on the detailed and varied sub-sectors. Within this report, we include sections on each key of these key product areas, including fitness trackers, smartwatches, smart clothing, smart eyewear (including AR and VR), smart skin patches, headphones and more. We also look separately by application sector (including healthcare & medical, fitness & wellness, professional sports, infotainment, enterprise, military and fashion), giving detailed case studies within each, but also discussing the trend that is seeing increasing cross-industry collaboration and product development.
 
IDTechEx analysis and forecasting across 39 categories of wearable technology device, segmented by industry, product type and location on the body.
 
Industry
  • Healthcare & medical
  • Fitness & wellness
  • Infotainment
  • Commercial
  • Industrial
  • Military
  • Other
  • Multi-sector
 
Product Type
  • Smartwatches - Including case studies on product evolution relative to the future of smartphones and new standalone personal communication devices
  • Fitness trackers - Including wrist-worn (in two separate categories), chest worn, the move to apparel and other form factors (clip-on, ear-worn, etc.)
  • Smart eyewear - Including virtual reality (VR), augmented (AR) and mixed reality, smart contact lenses
  • Smart clothing - Including elite sportswear, consumer sports apparel, heated apparel, chest straps, medical apparel, fashion apparel, workwear monitoring apparel, military apparel and others
  • Medical devices - Including breakdown by disease vertical, e.g. diabetes (sensors & pumps), cardiovascular treatments and monitoring, skin patches (physical, chemical, body area mapping), contact lenses (glaucoma, diabetes, etc.), hearing aids, neurological treatments, diagnostics devices, and others
  • Other infotainment devices - Including headphones (basic and smart, low and high end) and electronic watches
 
Location on body
  • Head
  • Ear
  • Eyes
  • Body (torso)
  • Arms
  • Wrist
  • Legs & feet
  • Implantable
  • Multi-location / adaptability by user or use case
This report contains granular 10-year forecasts describing revenues, volumes and pricing for 39 separate wearable technology product types from 2016-2026. To accompany this data, we have dedicated a chapter to the discussion of key trends throughout the industry as a series of case studies. This includes qualitative discussion backed up by key forecast data, and covers topics including the future of fitness tracking, a qualified case for growth in augmented, mixed and virtual reality segments, a study of smartwatches viewed in parallel to the future of standalone communication devices (e.g. smartphones), healthcare and medical devices and finally a study looking at wearables in the enterprise sector.
 
IDTechEx's team of expert analysts have been actively covering wearable electronics and parallel topics for the last decade. This report contains 60 company profiles and interviews with many of the largest, most innovative and disruptive companies in the ecosystem. All profiles are generated from interview-based primary research with key staff from the subject company, and are compiled alongside our other research to give maximum insight. In our end user interviews, we outline the future direction in some of the world's largest companies, outlining their vision for how wearables will fit within their business models, and what they feel is needed from the industry to drive further growth.
 
Some of the companies with profiles, case studies and/or interviews in the report
 
 
Source IDTechEx
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Table of Contents
1.EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
1.1."Wearables"- the hype is over and shifting to new sectors
1.2.The hype is over: Metrics (Google Trends)
1.3.The hype is over: Metrics (Funding Trends)
1.4.The hype is over: Metrics (Patent Trends)
1.5.Total Market Outlook
1.6.Market Outlook: Wrist-worn fitness trackers
1.7.Market Outlook: Headphones
1.8.Market Outlook: Augmented, virtual and mixed reality devices
1.9.Smartwatches: Short to medium term outlook
1.10.Long term: Standalone wearable communication devices
1.11.Market Outlook: Medical Devices
1.12.Wearables by market sector
2.INTRODUCTION
2.1.Introduction
2.2.Definitions
2.3.Grouping sections within wearable technology
2.4.Parallel sectors converge to wearable technology
2.5.Wearable technology overlaps with major verticals
2.6.The effects of defining a new industry sector
2.7.Prominent cross-industry collaboration
2.8.A history of wearable technology
2.9.A history of wearable technology
2.10.135 years of headphones
2.11.The growth of the premium headphone sector
2.12.Select history of wearable medical devices - Blood Pressure
2.13.Select history of wearable medical devices - Cardiac devices
2.14.Select history of wearable medical devices - Skin Patches
2.15.Wearable technology hype and drivers
3.TRENDS
3.1.Trends are the unifying factor in a diverse industry
3.2.Megatrends
3.3.Innovation trends
3.4.Making electronics flexible: examples
3.5.The evolving user interface: examples
3.6.Increasing battery life: examples
3.7.Geographical trends
3.8.Commoditisation and manufacturing in China
3.9.The impact of VCs and crowdfunding
3.10.R&D Focus in Europe and globally
3.11.Privacy concerns
3.12.Security concerns
3.13.The impact on the wearable technology market
4.APPLICATION SECTORS: VALUE PROPOSITION, TRENDS AND PROGRESS
4.1.Contents
4.2.Healthcare and Medical
4.3.Heart monitoring
4.4.Clinical Trials
4.5.Diabetes Monitoring: Closing the feedback loop?
4.6.Diabetes Monitoring: Current commercial situation
4.7.Advanced and portable diagnostics
4.8.Fitness and Wellness
4.9.Corporate Wellness
4.10.Wearables for the insurance sector: people and pets
4.11.UV protection
4.12.Infotainment
4.13.VR Gaming
4.14.Core infotainment devices: phone, watch, what next?
4.15.Enterprise: Industrial and Commercial
4.16.Applications in heavy industry
4.17.Case Study: Fujitsu Numazu Factory
4.18.Commercial applications
4.19.Power Assist Suits
4.20.Military
4.21.The Intelligent Soldier System
4.22.Others
4.23.Professional Sports
4.24.Examples: Athlete tracking for performance
4.25.Examples: Athlete tracking for entertainment
5.KEY WEARABLE TECHNOLOGY PRODUCT TYPES
5.1.Smartwatches
5.2.Example: The Apple Watch
5.3.Beyond smartwatches: the evolving user interface
5.4.Market Forecast: Wearable Communication Devices
5.5.Fitness trackers
5.6."Smartwatch" vs. "Fitness tracker"
5.7.Fitness tracking case studies: Fitbit
5.8.Fitness tracking case studies: Xiaomi
5.9.Fitness tracking case studies: Jawbone
5.10.Fitness tracking case studies: Nike
5.11.The future of fitness trackers
5.12.Smart Eyewear
5.13.Smart eyewear
5.14."Over eye" vs. "In eye"
5.15."On eye" - Smart eyewear and headsets
5.16.Virtual Reality
5.17.Augmented Reality
5.18.Mixed reality
5.19.In-eye: so much to do in limited space
5.20.Eye-worn electronics: The 4x main technology challenges
5.21.Smart Clothing
5.22.75 years of 'Smart Clothing'
5.23.Early commercial examples: Infineon, Philips, O'Neill
5.24.Related products: HRM Chest Straps
5.25.Integrating HRM into clothing
5.26.Who uses smart clothing today?
5.27.Market Forecast (e-textiles, apparel only), 2016-2026
5.28.Examples from key sectors
5.29.Project Jacquard
5.30.Large players enter the market: 3 strategies
5.31.For more details on Smart Clothing & E-Textiles
5.32.Skin patches
5.33.Cosmetic skin patches
5.34.Medical skin patches - the dark horse
5.35.A list of increasing number of medical skin patch products
5.36.Medical implants
6.WEARABLE TECHNOLOGY VALUE CHAIN AND COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE
6.1.Acquisitions, Investments, Partnerships and Prizes
6.2.List of prominent M&A activity
6.3.Funding and Investments
6.4.List of prominent partnerships
6.5.Prizes
6.6.Key Player Case Studies: Leaders in Wearables?
6.7.Apple
6.8.Alphabet
6.9.Medical Device Manufacturers
6.10.The battle of the contract manufacturers
6.11.Flex and Jabil: Contrasting strategies today
7.MARKET FORECASTING CASE STUDIES
7.1.Forecast Details and Assumptions
7.2.Wrist-worn fitness trackers
7.3.Headphones
7.4.Augmented, virtual and mixed reality devices
7.5.Smartwatches: Short to medium term outlook
7.6.Long term: Standalone wearable communication devices
7.7.Medical Devices
7.8.Wearables by market sector
7.9.Wearables for Enterprise
8.FULL MARKET FORECASTING: 2016 - 2026
8.1.Full market forecasting: Revenue
8.2.Full Market Forecasting: Volume
8.3.Full Market Forecasting: Pricing
9.COMPANY PROFILES AND INTERVIEWS
9.1.adidas
9.2.AiQ Smart Clothing
9.3.Amotech
9.4.APDM
9.5.Atheer Labs
9.6.Avegant
9.7.BeBop Sensors
9.8.Brochier Technologies
9.9.Catapult Sports
9.10.Cetemmsa
9.11.Clothing+
9.12.CSEM Centre Suisse d'Electronique et de Microtechnique SA
9.13.DECATHLON
9.14.Electrozyme LLC
9.15.Firstbeat Technologies Ltd
9.16.Footfalls and Heartbeats
9.17.Forster Rohner AG
9.18.GlaxoSmithKline
9.19.Google
9.20.Hexoskin
9.21.Hivox Biotek
9.22.Holst Centre
9.23.Humavox
9.24.IMEC
9.25.Infi-tex
9.26.Intelligent Textiles Limited
9.27.Interactive Wear
9.28.Joanneum Research
9.29.Johnson & Johnson Innovations
9.30.Kopin Corporation
9.31.Korulab
9.32.Lumiode, Inc.
9.33.Medical Design Solutions
9.34.Medtronic Inc
9.35.Oculus
9.36.Ohmatex ApS
9.37.Optinvent
9.38.Primo1D
9.39.Proteus Digital Health
9.40.Ricoh
9.41.Runtastic GmbH
9.42.Samsara S.r.l.
9.43.Sarvint Technologies, Inc
9.44.Seiko Epson Corporation
9.45.Sensing Tex
9.46.Sensoria
9.47.Sensum
9.48.Sharp Devices Europe GMBH
9.49.Smartlife Technology Ltd
9.50.Stretchsense
9.51.Thalmic Labs
9.52.UICO
9.53.United Sciences
9.54.Valencell Inc
9.55.Vancive Medical Technologies
9.56.Varibel Innovations BV
9.57.Vivalnk
9.58.Vocalzoom
9.59.VUZIX Corporation
9.60.Wearable Life Science
9.61.Ybrain Inc.
10.EXTENDED COMPANY DATABASE: WEARABLE TECHNOLOGY
IDTECHEX RESEARCH REPORTS AND CONSULTANCY
 

Report Statistics

Slides 231
Companies 61
Forecasts to 2026
 
 
 
 

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