Smart wearable devices to become a consumer market by 2014, experts say

Expanding wireless network capacity and other new technologies are enabling growth for the “smart wearable devices” market, such as glasses, watches and healthcare monitoring tools, experts say. In a report released Oct. 31, research firm Juniper Research Ltd. forecasted the smart wearable devices market will be worth more than $1.5 billion US by 2014, rising from $800 million US in 2012. Roberta Fox, chair and chief innovation officer at Fox Group, said in a phone interview that devices have been in labs for 10 to 15 years. Their emergence on the market now stems from a “perfect storm” of technologies that support the devices' capabilities. “WiFi’s coming together. The recording applications are becoming more intelligent. The voice recognition applications are getting more intelligent, and the devices are getting much smaller,” Fox said. The Juniper report, titled “The Smart Wearable Devices: Fitness, Healthcare, Enterprise & Entertainment 2012-2017,” defined a smart wearable device as a computing device worn or attached to the body for sports, fitness, multimedia, entertainment, multi-functions, or enterprise and industrial tasks. Juniper said North America and Western Europe would dominate the market with a 60 per cent share of global wearable device sales. Consumer spending on fitness, multi-functional devices and healthcare will largely drive device revenues, the report said, and fitness and entertainment will drive demand on the consumer end. “With consumers embracing new technologies and form factors, wearable devices ranging from fitness accessories to heads-up display will be more prevalent in the consumer market,” Nitin Bhas, the report’s author, said in a statement for the release of the report. The firm said it did not have an expert available for an interview. Fox agreed that on a global scale the $1.5 billion mark is achievable by 2014. “Whether it’s music or emergency calls, you need to have that infrastructure first,” she said. Duncan Stewart, director for technology, media and telecom at Deloitte Canada, said in a phone interview that devices like the customizable smart watch from Pebble Technology has been successful, receiving pledges and orders worth $10.3 million US through crowdfunding site Kickstarter as of May 18. “They’re much better than expected,” Stewart said. “That’s good, but it’s only $10 million. It’s not $1.5 billion.” Pebble’s E-paper smart watch communicates with Apple Inc. iOS or Google Inc. Android devices through Bluetooth. The $150 US watch comes with several pre-installed fitness applications that can monitor a user’s activities and progress. Stewart predicted that smart wearable devices for healthcare, such as insulin pumps and pain devices that provide controlled relief, will also be successful though they may comprise just $100 million to $200 million of the market. Google debuted smartphone-enabled eyewear in April. Sergey Brin, Google co-founder, said in a keynote address at the June Google I/O Conference that the glasses would be available to consumers early next year and would retail commercially for $1,500 US. Google declined to comment for this story. Stewart said people dislike wearing such products. Consumers tend to lean more toward contacts or laser eye surgery “to get rid of things hanging off our face,” he said. “We think the idea that there will be a rapid ramp of this seems unlikely,” Stewart said. As models for smart glasses become more sophisticated, slimmer and transparent, their popularity could grow through 2015, 2016 and 2017, he said. They may also be more popular with a younger demographic, particularly when used for video games, he added. Fox predicted that smart wearable devices will be first adopted on the consumer and entertainment side before moving to the business and industrial sectors, as was the case with Apple's iPad. A customization of devices for commercial markets could happen quickly, she said. She said wearable devices will have more use in the healthcare and safety industries than music and entertainment because they can help protect people like mechanics working alone or people who are physically disabled. Voice activated wearable devices can also provide workers with fast access to emergency services, she said. “There’s a whole bunch of industrial jobs where that kind of thing would be very helpful.” In 2005-2006, Ottawa-based communications provider Mitel Networks Corp. had come up with a small wearable IP prototype pin that allowed parents to keep track of their children while at an amusement park. Jeff Nolan, vice-president of North American channel development at Mitel, said in a phone interview that the IP pin did not proceed beyond the prototype phase because, as the market shifted towards consumerization, Mitel turned its focus towards device architecture as opposed to the devices themselves. He said more businesses are providing wireless access inside their buildings, often for the public. Nolan said he sees wearable devices coming into the consumer marketplace and that their full emergence will happen in “four to five years.” Nolan agreed with Fox that personal wearable devices will follow the “iPhone paradigm,” where they entered the business market after the consumer, or personal, market. “ nurses wanting to have personal devices that they can use for better communication inside healthcare, assisted living, or different pieces of healthcare,” he said. dgrenier@thewirereport.ca

Smart wearable devices to become a consumer market by 2014, experts say

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Smart wearable devices to become a consumer market by 2014, experts say

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