The global market for “wearable” computing such as fitness-trackers, smartwatches, and software-infused ear pieces is growing strong, according to figures release on Thursday by International Data Corp (IDC).
Shipments of such gadgets hit a new quarterly high of 33.9 million units in the final three months of last year, and were up 25 percent to 102.4 million for the entire year, according to the latest quarterly IDC Worldwide Wearable Device Tracker report.
The market is growing strong as devices evolve from serving singular purposes such as tracking how far a wearer walks to gathering more detailed health data and even having telecommunications service connections instead of relying on being synched to smartphones, the report said.
“Health and fitness remains a major focus, but once these devices become connected to a cellular network, expect unique applications and communications capabilities to become available,” IDC wearables research manager Ramon Llama said in the report.
“This will also solve another key issue: freeing the device from the smartphone, creating a standalone experience,” he said.
New contenders, including companies known for fashion or with specialties such as baby monitoring, are entering a market with established major players such as Apple Inc and Google, according to the report.
“With the entrance of multiple new vendors with strengths in different industries, the wearables market is expected to maintain a positive outlook, though much of this growth is coming from vendor push rather than consumer demand,” IDC senior research manager Jitesh Ubrani said.
Improving shipments of ear-worn devices, referred to as “hearables,” and clothing with sensors woven in, while still relatively tiny, showed promise that the market is becoming about more than just wrist-worn devices, IDC said.
Fitbit Inc continued to dominate, losing some ground, but holding on to 19.2 percent of the market in the final quarter of last year.
China’s Xiaomi Corp (小米) nearly doubled its share to 15.2 percent and Apple was in third place with 13.6 percent, IDC said.
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