Wearables continue to display strong growth in the first quarter of the year, reaching $6 billion in revenue on a 133 percent yearly growth.
The main factor for pushing wearables passed the $6 billion mark is the Apple Watch, which is already the most successful smartwatch on the market, despite being less than a year old.
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Value per wearable grew at a rate of 50 percent yearly to $218, according to research firm Futuresource Computing, another potential factor of the Apple Watch growth in the first quarter.
If reaching the top of the smartwatch market wasn’t enough, the Apple Watch has also supposedly passed Casio, Citizen, and Fossil. Major watchmakers Swatch and Rolex are still ahead, but the insurgence of a non-watchmaker into the market may change in the industry’s perception on smartwatches.
Competition drives down fitness tracker prices
Activity trackers from wearable manufacturers like Fitbit and Jawbone surpassed 10 million in sales, but only noticed 18 percent growth in volume and an average price slump of 40 percent from 2014 to 2015.
That is mostly due to the Xiaomi Mi Band, sold in China for less than $30, alongside Fitbit, Jawbone, and other fitness providers expanding wearable options to include more economical options.
Due to the slump in wearable average price, spend in this area only grew by two percent in 2015 and Futuresource expects similarly underwhelming figures in 2016.
What we are seeing from market leader Fitbit leads us to believe that smartwatches with central fitness functionality may be the future. It launched the Surge last year, a fitness tracker with basic smartwatch functionality, and the Blaze is a continuation of this trend.
Despite the lack of spend in the fitness and health tracker realm, we are seeing large acquisitions take place in the industry for talent and tech. Nokia acquired Withings, the French wearable health firm, for $191 million; Fitbit acquired Coin for an undisclosed amount.
