Almost 70m smart wearable devices, including smart glasses, health and fitness devices, along with enterprise wearables, wil be sold in 2017, compared to almost 15m sales of these devices in 2013.
That’s the conclusion of a new report from Juniper Research, entitled Smart Wearable Devices: Fitness, Healthcare, Entertainment & Enterprise 2012-2017. Juniper envisages significant adoption towards the end of the forecast period, driven by the launch of Augmented Reality glasses, and similar products, from Google, Microsoft and Apple.

The market will be dominated by N. America and Western Europe, representing over 60 per cent of the global wearable device sales. The next-gen wearable devices market, including smart glasses, will be worth more than $1.5bn by 2014, up from just $800m this year.

The report indicates that fitness and sports wearables, followed by healthcare devices, are forecast to dominate the market, with a combined market share of over 80 per cent in the final forecast year, 2017. However, even though the number of fitness and sports devices bought per year is higher than the number of healthcare devices sold, the health sector will be slightly larger in terms of retail value, due to higher price points. The report also notes that, as the retail price for smart glasses decline towards the end of the forecast period, the adoption level amongst consumers will increase by 2017. It also concludes that the development of an app ecosystem for wearable devices is essential to create a platform for further broadening the role of wearable devices, similar to the smartphone app ecosystem.

“The development of the smartphone/app store model has opened up new avenues for other segments within the market, such as the wearable device market, by combining mobility with an efficient method of software delivery. The simultaneous development of app ecosystem and wearable devices will integrate technologies, such as Augmented Reality, into human life more seamlessly”, said report author Nitin Bhas.

Theres more information about the report here.