Fitbit was the undisputed leader in the wearables market in the last quarter of 2015. Garmin took home fifth place that same quarter according to IDC. It should come as no surprise then that the two get the most shelf space from U.S. national retailers when it comes to smart wrist wearables. Gap Intelligence found that Fitbit accounted for 19 percent of retail placements […]
Market analysis
Mobile and wearable payments to reach $95 billion annually by 2018
Mobile and wearable payment adoption is expected to skyrocket over the next few years. A new study by Juniper Research predicts that mobile and wearable contactless payments could hit US$95 billion (about CA$122 billion) annually by 2018. In comparison, mobile payments hit US$35 billion last year. Sales of smartphones and other mobile devices have dwarfed those of wearables to date and […]
Study: Companion apps hindering wearable device growth
A new study by Argus Insights has found that consumers may love their wearable devices but they are not so enthused by the companion apps they come with. An analysis of some 136,000 consumer reviews of wearables devices and applications found that there is a gap in consumer satisfaction between the hardware and the apps. Furthermore, this gap could hinder future wearable device growth. […]
Casio G-Shock and the Rolex Submariner the most Googled watches
Google searches are often a good indicator of what is popular. Based on research performed by online retailer Karus Chains (which does not sell watches but studies the search habits of online shoppers who use Google), two watches shared the top spot as the most popular watch Google searches for the last two years. The Casio G-Shock and the Rolex Submariner, both of which […]
Fitbit continues to dominate wearables market in Q4 2015
Predictions that Apple would leap ahead of Fitbit on the strength of Apple Watch sales proved inaccurate as Fitbit remained the “undisputed worldwide leader of wearable devices” in Q4 2015 according to the latest International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Wearable Device Tracker. After shipping 4.7 million devices in the previous quarter, Fitbit shipped a further 8.1 million wearables in Q4 to bring […]
Smartwatch shipments beat Swiss watch shipments in Q4 2015
The Swiss watch industry may not have entered another ice age just yet but it appears that winter has arrived. The latest report from Strategy Analytics has found that smartwatch shipments topped those of traditional Swiss watches for the first time in Q4 2015. It estimates that 8.1 million smartwatches shipped while Swiss watch shipments hit 7.9 million units. While the former […]
Worldwide wearable sales to grow 18.4 percent in 2016
If Gartner’s latest worldwide wearable sales numbers are to be believed, 2015 may have been a bigger year for smartwatches than initially believed. Juniper Research pegged 2015 smartwatch sales at 17.1 million units. Gartner estimates that 274.6 million wearable electronic devices were sold in 2015 with 30.32 million of those being smartwatches. It also expects that smartwatch sales alone will hit […]
Spending on activity trackers doubled in 2015
Consumer spent more than twice buying up new connected activity trackers in 2015 than they did the previous year. A new report by The NPD Group found that sales grew 110 percent, jumping from US$692 million in 2014 to US$1.46 billion in 2015. Unit sales jumped 85% from from 7.2 million to 13.4 million with the average selling price (ASP) increasing from $US96 to […]