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posted by martyb on Monday November 02 2015, @06:03AM   Printer-friendly
from the wating-for-ring-sized-wearables dept.

The wearable tech industry will treble inside the next five years – with a whopping 245 million devices expected to ship in 2019.

That's according to CCS Insight's Wearables Forecast, Worldwide, 2015-2019, which states that the shipments for 2015 will be around 84 million units. That's a growth in monetary value of 64 per cent; from $15 billion in 2015 to $25 billion in 2019.

The analyst states fitness and activity trackers will account for more than half of the 2019 market in terms of units shipped, but smartwatches will make up more than 50 per cent of the revenue.

Smartwatches are obviously more expensive than fitness bands – especially given the decreasing prices of the latter thanks to budget-friendly brands like Xiaomi. The Chinese company has $15 tracker currently on sale – the Mi Band. The report claims that China overtook the US to become the biggest market for fitness trackers in 2015.


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  • (Score: 2) by frojack on Monday November 02 2015, @07:00AM

    by frojack (1554) on Monday November 02 2015, @07:00AM (#257383) Journal

    The Chinese company Xiaomi, has $15 tracker currently on sale – the Mi Band.

    Microsoft just released Version 2 of of their Microsoft Band for $250.

    The Mi Band reviewed here [wareable.com] has just about no functionality other than It tracks steps, distance and estimated calories. All for $15.

    The Microsoft Band reviewed here [windowscentral.com] contains real sensors, and costs real money.

    There are dozens more, many in the $50 range. There is another common price point around 99 bucks

    But where will the actual money be spent? High end, Low end?
    Will these thing meet with the usual disdain and negativism reserved for consumer tech here on SoylentNews?

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  • (Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Monday November 02 2015, @12:17PM

    by Phoenix666 (552) on Monday November 02 2015, @12:17PM (#257445) Journal

    Will these thing meet with the usual disdain and negativism reserved for consumer tech here on SoylentNews?

    There does seem to be a lot of that. I suspect it's because the companies are trying to use tech to make money. But it could be because they're trying to make money by bringing tech to people who don't understand tech. So there's purism and elitism at work.

    I do find the tracking craze interesting because it's real-time data. You can correlate different kinds of activity with the effects on your body. You can really see if your workout is working. You can quantify if you need to get out more. There have also been stories recently about sensors that track stuff like your blood sugar in real time, which can be a boon for people who suffer from hypoglycemia and want to be able to adjust their diets so they can feel better. Then of course there are the people who are tracking their brain waves.

    When you think about it, our bodies a machine like any other, and having real data to fine tune its function is surely a solidly geek-worthy activity, right?

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    • (Score: 2) by VLM on Monday November 02 2015, @01:35PM

      by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Monday November 02 2015, @01:35PM (#257476)

      Don't forget early adopter-itis. This is new and "cool" fad in China but I've had my fitbit for awhile, no longer care about it, and next time I launder it I'm not buying another. I don't even read the emails with my stats anymore. It was an interesting fad for awhile. The future is already here just unevenly distributed and lots of people here live way into the future. For the sake of argument, if the fad only has legs for a couple years and some of us are about a decade into the future, then we're going to look at fads of our past like boring people would look at corduroy bell bottoms today.

      Early adopter-itis also kicks in with prices. iPhones aren't $120/month anymore, or so I hear. Until about two years ago, for decades I "knew" that HDTVs all cost $5K+ so they're simply out of my budget. "Wait, WTF, HDTV the size of my living room window is cheaper than my window? WTF? Guess I'll buy one now that its only hundreds instead of tens of thousands, when did this happen?" So its the same thing with "fitness trackers" I think my first fitbit was over $100 many years ago, now only semi-surprised there are Chinese clone ripoffs that work just as well/poorly for $15 now.

      Lets say you have a discussion board for rock collecting geologists. And the pet rock phenomena kicks off. True, folks who currently hang out on Jezebel and Huffpo are going to find pet rocks the most fascinating new thing they've ever heard of because being fresh meat is their purpose. But the rock collectors who had gneiss back before gneiss was cool are naturally not going to be overly impressed that millions are picking up pieces of gravel.

      • (Score: 2) by joshuajon on Monday November 02 2015, @05:11PM

        by joshuajon (807) on Monday November 02 2015, @05:11PM (#257595)

        There's a joke about Pebble [pebble.com] in here somewhere...