Smart wearable devices are forecast to be a big hit with shipments, including watches and glasses, expected to exceed 100 million by 2017.
According to a just-released report by Juniper Research, global smart wearable device shipments will more than quadruple by 2017, reaching 116 million units compared to an estimated 27 million this year. Smart wearable device revenues are forecast to hit over $53 billion in 2019.
Demand is in no small part driven by the removal of technological barriers, while larger players in the market are moving beyond devices to produce operating systems and databanks that manage the information generated by wearables.
Recent examples include Google's Android Wear, Qualcomm's 2net and Samsung's Digital Health Initiative.
Independent wearables will remain rare, as manufacturers continue to build their software around a companion smartphone to encourage a dual revenue stream.
Juniper anticipates that increasingly capable smart watches will incorporate multiple sensors, negating the need for separate devices to measure health and fitness biometrics.
The report argues that this will cut both ways, as several fitness devices such as the Samsung Gear Fit and Razer Nabu offer notification services in addition to activity tracking, assimilating smart watch capabilities. Juniper therefore believes that it will take until 2017 for more smart watches to be used than fitness wearables.
More advanced wearable technologies will be developed first for enterprise and healthcare applications, as these segments have clear use cases that technology can solve.