Around this time last year, I wrote a post titled “These Smart Watches Better Sell” for this blog. It was a short piece with a simple message: A lot of time and money had been invested in the development of these devices, and sales would be a good indicator of how the smart watch market—and the wearables market as a whole—would fare in 2014.
As it turned out, smart watches did not achieve the breakthrough in sales that many analysts predicted in 2014. Although unit sales grew by 82 percent from 2013, only 6.8 million total units were sold, according to the independent research firm Smartwatch Group.
However, it appears that analyst projections for an explosion in the market were not incorrect—they were simply a year too soon.
The Apple Watch went on sale for the first time in April of this year and it did not disappoint; the new device generated approximately 1 million pre-orders on its launch day alone. Buoyed by the interest in the Apple Watch, research firm IDC projects the smart watch market to grow by more than 500 percent this year and the wearables market to expand 133.4 percent in 2015. The firm also predicts a 45.1 percent compound annual growth rate for wearables to 2019.
Among the reasons analysts are projecting robust growth in the wearables industry are increased innovation, demand and competition. Additionally, prices of wearable devices are beginning to drop, making them more available to the general public.
Low-priced 4G-LTE-chipset solutions, like our Category 0 FourGee-1150/6401 chip, will play an increasingly important role in the future of wearables and are expected to lower the price tag even further.
Additionally, since our chipset consumes far less power than traditional LTE chips, it allows wearable devices to stay charged longer. This is an attractive feature for consumers who don’t want to have to worry about their smart watch or fitness band dying on their evening jog.
It’s becoming clear that 2015 will indeed be remembered as the Year of the Smart Watch—and we could not be happier. Not just because this development is good for our business, but also because wearable devices have the power to help people live healthier, more efficient, convenient lives. Our LTE chipsets do more than connect M2M wearable devices—they help connect people to other people and to useful information.
Wearables are among the most exciting and fastest-evolving technologies out there right now.
And we look forward to extending the battery life and bringing down the cost of these much sought-after devices.