A German market researcher has predicted that the global wearable market will leap to 51.2 million sales this year, three times the size of last year.
According to GfK’s trends data made available on Monday (local time), 13.5 million health and fitness trackers (HFTs) were sold globally in 2014, compared to 4.1 million smartwatches. When combined, 17.6 million smartwatches and HFTs were sold worldwide last year, with HFTs accounting for 77 percent of overall volume sold. However, GfK predicted, smartwatch sales will overtake HFT sales this year.
Sales of smartwatches are expected to reach 26.1 million this year, a 6.5-fold increase from last year, while sales of HFTs will nearly double to 25 million, it said.
Dr. Jan Wassmann, global product manager for wearables at GfK, said: “Many consumers are not yet aware of the additional benefits a smartwatch has to offer. We believe this will now change, driven by the marketing efforts of the industry this year.
"Added to this, there is a clear convergence of both segments, which started in the second half of 2014 – and we see this driving market growth. HFT manufacturers are introducing new models which incorporate smart functions, such as reading notifications and messages.
"And many new smartwatches now come with heart rate sensors and activity tracking capabilities and are being marketed as hybrid fitness devices.”
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com
