Find out how improvements in wearable tech can help people take control of their well-being Wearing your health on your sleeve
Wearables are set for a growth spurt in the coming years, as industries ranging from personal assistance services and security, to fashion and fitness, employ the technology. Wearables, or wearable technologies, are smart electronic devices using sensors and microcontrollers that are incorporated into clothing, or worn on the body.
Wearables can collect biometric data such as heart rate, brainwaves and muscle signals to provide you with valuable information about your health conditions. Wearables do this by monitoring body activities such as motion, force, rate and temperature.
But while most of this manifests as a seemingly simple concept for now, the variety and use capabilities of devices in the wearables market are growing.
According to a Forbes report from industry analyst CCS Insight, worldwide smart wearable device sales will double by 2022. The CCS report predicts that approximately 85 million smartwatches will be sold in 2019, increasing to 137 million in 2022.
Sundeep Gantori, IT Analyst for the UBS Chief Investment Office (CIO), believes it’s just the beginning for wearables. “Growth was initially driven by consumer applications like wearables and home-connected devices, a trend that we expect to continue,” says Gantori.
“While most of us associate wearables with smart watches, like the Apple Watch, there is much more to this area,” points out Gantori.
According to Gantori, wearables can be worn:
• on the head like Bluetooth or virtual reality headsets
• on the wrist like smart watches or fitness bands
• on the body like smart T-shirts, which is an area that has attracted much attention from sportswear companies.
Secular trends in aging, population growth and urbanization continue to place greater importance on health monitoring technology and their applications.
“While we believe that product innovation has likely peaked in other major consumer electronics categories like smartphones, PCs and TVs, wearables still offer the possibility of increased design choices and new applications (like fitness tracking or music streaming). We therefore expect wearables to gain market share in the coming years,” says Gantori.
Based on IDC and Bloomberg Intelligence data, the global wearables market was expected to grow from USD 16bn in 2016 – currently less than 2 percent of the overall consumer electronics market – to USD 52bn in 2020. As wearable technology improves, so will the accuracy of health metrics, helping people take control of their well-being.