Consumer Smart Wearable Market

Market Overview

The global consumer smart wearable market was valued at 350.85 million units in 2022. It is estimated to reach 1,727.84 million units by 2031, growing at a CAGR of 19.38% during the forecast period (2023–2031). The sensors are one of the most essential components of smart wearable technologies. The advancements in these sensors, along with a reduction in the size of the sensor, are expected to drive market growth as these small sensors, in turn, help reduce the device size. In addition, the development and advancement of smart fabric have gained traction in recent years, thereby boosting the global consumer smart wearable market.

Wearable technology refers to any technology that is intended to be worn. Smartwatches and smart glasses are common examples of wearable technology. Wearable electronic devices are frequently close to or on the skin's surface, where they detect, analyze, and transmit information like vital signs and ambient data. In some cases, they provide immediate biofeedback to the wearer. Wearable devices, like activity trackers, are an example of the Internet of Things, as "things" like electronics, software, sensors, and connectivity are effectors that allow objects to exchange data (including data quality) over the Internet with a manufacturer, operator, and other connected devices without human intervention.

Smartwatches, smart rings, and implants are consumer electronics' most prevalent forms of wearables. In addition to its commercial uses, wearable technology is presently incorporated into navigation systems, sophisticated fabrics (e-textiles), and healthcare domains. Wearable technology's dependability and security qualities are assessed when considering its potential use in crucial applications.

Market Dynamics

Global Consumer Smart Wearable Market Drivers:

Rising Advancement and Reducing Size of Sensors

The advancement and reduction of sensor size, particularly pressure sensors and activators, contributed to the expansion of the smart wearables market. Numerous businesses are investing in developing advanced MEMS and digital sensors, which are shrinking in size and thus covering a vast array of market applications.

Fiber optic sensors (FOSs) have been extensively accepted as a substitute for traditional sensors in smart fabrics/clothing because of their small size and better metrological properties. Although the same may not be the case in head-mounted displays, companies such as Lucyd are focusing on the ergonomics aspect. By reducing the size and weight, companies expect to increase the applications of head-mounted displays across industries. Such factors boost market growth.

Evolution of Smart Clothing

The conjunction of smart wearables with smart textiles is becoming the new interface between humans and the digital world. Smart clothing/textiles are manufactured and designed fabrics that integrate technologies to enhance the wearer's functionality. These textiles have numerous potential applications, including interacting with other devices, conducting energy, converting them into other substances, and shielding the wearer from environmental hazards. In recent years, there has been a great deal of interest in developing wearable textile-based personal systems that enable health monitoring, protection, safety, and a healthy lifestyle.

Additionally, smart fabrics and interactive textiles activities include personal sports management via integration, validation, and utilization of smart clothing and other networked mobile devices, as well as projects focusing on the integration of sensors/actuators, energy sources, processing, and communication within clothing to enable personal applications such as safety/protection, emergency. Various types of smart clothing are increasingly utilized to monitor sports activity and gather formerly unavailable but noticeably precious data. This affords a complete possibility to look at athletes for the duration of training and competition, providing more effective training and higher protection protocols. Therefore, the development of smart clothing is expected to fuel the market expansion.

Global Consumer Smart Wearable Market Restraints:

High Cost and Data Security Concerns

In recent years, wearable technology has been widely popularized; however, protecting users' personal information is still an issue. Despite the fact that attackers may find little value in data from smart wearables like smartwatches, the risk for such devices continues to rise. Risks will likely increase if the device is equipped with an LTE connection and can be operated independently of the paired device.

Enterprises leverage wearables to drive greater efficiency, enhance communication, and improve workflow by launching enterprise-focused wearable apps like Salesforce and Zoho. They do not always introduce new security holes but certainly widen existing ones. There is a potential for a data breach due to the sensitive nature of the information collected by wearables like smartwatches, including geo-location data, contact details, and health records. Due to their integration with several cloud services and their potential to compromise security measures, these entities provide a significant security concern. These factors are expected to impede the expansion of the market.

Global Consumer Smart Wearable Market Opportunities:

Surging Product Launches

Demand from industries like military, healthcare, sports and fitness, and entertainment, among others, have increased owing to the increased functionality wearables offer in the era of IoT. This demand has been bolstered by introducing new products to the market. For instance, in June 2022, Ambrane announced the launch of the Wise Roam smartwatch series as a portfolio expansion. The IP68 water-resistant smartwatch features Bluetooth calling and over 100 cloud-based watch faces.

The Wise Roam smartwatch includes sensors for measuring heart rate, blood pressure, SpO2, menstrual health, sleep, and wellness metrics. It also provides breath training, weather forecasts, High AR alerts, and reminders to avoid sedentary behavior. The smartwatch features over sixty sports modes and software compatible with Android and iOS devices. The watch is also compatible with Apple Health and Google Fit. Such launches by key players are expected to create opportunities for market growth.

Regional Analysis

Asia-Pacific Dominates the Global Market

Based on region, the global consumer smart wearable market is bifurcated into North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Latin America, and the Middle East and Africa. 

Asia-Pacific is the most significant global consumer smart wearable market shareholder and is expected to expand significantly during the forecast period. The huge population in the region, along with surging urbanization and industrialization, is expected to drive the market in Asia-Pacific. The surging disposable income and changing lifestyles in emerging nations like China, India, and South Korea, among others, are also estimated to foster market growth in this region. A Chinese government think tank recently released a paper estimating that southeast China's port city and industrial powerhouse produces about 80 percent of the world's smart wearables. China is one of the largest countries involved in manufacturing for various end-user industries. With the increasing miniaturization and reduced prices, the manufacturing vendors are looking for ways to increase efficiency and profitability using Industry 4.0. This creates a beneficial scenario for sensor makers and end users, resulting in boosted market growth.

Europe is expected to grow at a significant pace. The region has been undergoing multiple product launches due to the augmented demand for wearables due to growing fitness activities. Various smartwatches and fitness tracker brands continue to launch new products and devote more marketing efforts to the category. For instance, in December 2021, Xiaomi announced three fitness wearable devices to the UK market. The Redmi Watch 2 Lite, the Mi Smart Band 6 NFC, and the Redmi Band Pro have all been rolled out on the Xiaomi UK website. In March 2022, Xiaomi also unveiled a couple of smartwatches, such as the Watch S1 and S1 Active, with various fitness features onboard, including 117 workout options, dual-band GPS, all-day heart rate tracking, and SpO2 monitoring. Such launches are expected to boost the regional market growth.

North America is a technically advanced region with a high demand for smart wearable technologies. According to Cisco Systems, connected wearable devices in North America are anticipated to grow to over 439 million in 2022. North America is forecast to have the most 5G connections made using wearable devices in 2022. Ongoing innovation and product development in terms of enhanced features among the prominent players across the region are expected to boost the market demand during the forecast period. For instance, in May 2022, Google unveiled its first smartwatch at its annual developer conference, combining its Wear operating system with Fitbit health tracking. The watch can only be connected to Android devices and is compatible with 4G networks. Furthermore, companies have been filing patents and commenting positively on the future of smartwatch technology, such as gesture recognition and futuristic applications. This will likely make the industry players in the region spend on research and development of such technologies, thereby shaping future applications.

In Latin American nations such as Brazil, Argentina, and Mexico, wearables businesses are expanding, and the local market is becoming more sophisticated. The market is getting more structured, with 'smarter' devices having more significant representation concerning essential gadgets such as fitness bands. As a result of market consolidation and manufacturers' investments in entry-level and premium devices, there will be a shift toward massification and a decrease in the average price in Latin America. For instance, in July 2020, Samsung announced that smartwatches and fitness bands' production had commenced at its factory in Manaus, Amazonas.

Moreover, Samsung is also manufacturing the Galaxy Watch Active (black, silver, and rose gold), the 40mm Galaxy Watch Active 2 LTE (pink gold), the 44mm Watch Active 2 LTE (black), and the Galaxy Fit e (black and white) at its factory in Manaus. These significant developments are expected to boost the growth of wearables in these regions.

Segmental Analysis

The global consumer smart wearable market is segmented by product.

Based on product, the global consumer smart wearable market is bifurcated into smartwatches, head-mounted displays, smart clothing, ear-worn, fitness trackers, and body-worn cameras. 

The smartwatch segment dominates the global market and is expected to expand substantially over the forecast period. A smartwatch is a wearable computing gadget that looks like a wristwatch with a touchscreen display that enables users to perform actions by tapping or swiping. Several applications on modern smartwatches are comparable to those on smartphones and tablets. These applications provide additional functionality, such as displaying maps and directions, stock prices, and weather information. Smartwatches can also be used to send and receive text messages and make phone calls.

In addition, various market players have updated their products by embedding the latest technologies to sustain their market position. For instance, in April 2022, B. Rebel released SmartWatch 1.0, a wearable with high-tech features such as heart rate monitoring, sleep monitoring, menstrual cycle tracker, sedentary alert, daily activity tracker, blood oxygen monitoring (SpO2), 11 sports modes, etc. The smartwatch has a 1.69-inch full HD LCD Touch Screen Display, a metal body, IP68 Waterproof material, and a Taiwan Realtek chip.

A head-mounted display (HMD) refers to a visual display apparatus that consists of a compact display optic positioned in front of either one eye (monocular HMD) or both eyes (binocular HMD). This device is typically worn on the head or integrated into a helmet. Most of their applications include gaming, aviation, engineering, and medicine. Heads-up displays do not obscure the user's vision; instead, they superimpose the image on the user's view of the real world. A retinal display is an emerging type of heads-up display that projects an image directly onto the retina's sensitive portion. However, the image appears to be on a screen at the user's optimal viewing distance, but there is no actual screen in front of the user; rather, the image is reflected into the user's eye by special optics such as modified eyeglasses. Some head-mounted displays include motion sensors for determining direction and movement or as an interface for immersive virtual reality applications.

A fitness tracker is an electronic device for tracking and monitoring fitness-related metrics such as distance walking or running, calories burned, heartbeats, and many others. It is a type of wearable computer. These are also known as activity trackers. They are usually embedded with various sensors such as an accelerometer (to track movement), a gyroscope (to estimate orientation and rotation), an altimeter (to sense changes in altitude), an electrocardiogram (to record electric impulse of the heart), pulse oximeter (to track oxygen in various parts), etc. Fitness bands communicate via Bluetooth with applications on a mobile device (smartphones) that configures the device and download the wearer's activity data. Most smartwatches support several physical activities via a health application.

Body-worn cameras are small cameras worn as a headset or attached to clothing to record video and audio. These are mostly used by police personnel for law enforcement and public accountability functions. Vendors are launching BWC to offer features that the police department currently requires. For instance, Philips launched VideoTracer DVT3120, which offers Full HD 1080p video recording using super-wide 170° angle coverage for ultimate clear footage. VideoTracer is a tool that provides reliable evidence to security officers and other law enforcement professionals, such as retail security staff or private parking. Such innovations are expected to drive the body-worn camera market across various regions during the forecast period.

Recent Developments

• August 2023- Bonatra, a health-tech startup, announced the launch of Wearable Smart Rings. It was asserted that the newly introduced Smart Rings are designed to continuously monitor various health parameters, enabling users to live longer and healthier lives.
• October 2023- Noise, an Indian technology company, released its first smart ring, the Luna Ring, which monitors the wearer's sleep, readiness, and activity levels. The ring, which features advanced sensors and a sturdy design, monitors more than 70 metrics and provides recommendations for optimizing rest patterns and overall health.