{"id":55605,"date":"2014-04-12T00:05:29","date_gmt":"2014-04-11T22:05:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=55605"},"modified":"2014-04-11T18:02:22","modified_gmt":"2014-04-11T16:02:22","slug":"wearable-tech-is-entering-the-mainstream","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/hardware\/55605\/wearable-tech-is-entering-the-mainstream\/","title":{"rendered":"Wearable tech is entering the mainstream"},"content":{"rendered":"

The worldwide wearable computing market (commonly referred to as “wearables tech”) is finally expanding beyond early adopter status, says the research group, International Data Corporation (IDC).<\/p>\n

According to the firm, wearable tech is moving into a more functional and stylish lifestyle accessory category that’s making its way into mainstream media.<\/p>\n

New research from , wearables took a huge step forward over the past year and shipment volumes will exceed 19 million units in 2014, more than tripling last year’s sales.<\/p>\n

Additionally, the global market is expected to swell to 111.9 million units in 2018, resulting in a CAGR of 78.4%.<\/p>\n

IDC predicts that complex accessories (e.g., Nike+ FuelBand, Jawbone UP, and Fitbit devices) will lead the wearables market through 2018, as users continue to embrace their simplicity and low price points.<\/p>\n

These devices are designed to operate partially independent of any other device, but fully operate when connected with IP-capable devices such as a smartphone, tablet, or a PC.<\/p>\n

“Complex accessories have succeeded in drawing much-needed interest and attention to a wearables market that has had some difficulty gaining traction,” said Ramon Llamas, Research Manager, Mobile Phones.<\/p>\n

“The increased buzz has prompted more vendors to announce their intentions to enter this market. Most importantly, end-users have warmed to their simplicity in terms of design and functionality, making their value easy to understand and use.”<\/p>\n

\"Google<\/a>

Google Glass<\/p><\/div>\n

Another segment of the market, smart accessories, is also expected gain momentum through the forecast period and surpass complex accessory shipments by 2018.<\/p>\n

“Similar to complex accessories, with their dependence on connecting with IP-capable devices, smart accessories allow users to add third-party applications that boost features and functions for a more robust experience,” IDC said.<\/p>\n

“While not quite ready for prime time, the smart accessory market will continue to mature as users better understand and accept the value proposition and vendors refine their offerings.”<\/p>\n

The third segment of the wearables market is smart wearables, such as Google Glass, which function with full autonomy, independent of any other device except to access the Internet.<\/p>\n

“To succeed, smart wearable vendors must convince users to shift to a new user experience while offering them a robust selection of third-party applications. It is not a question of ‘if,’ but ‘when’ wearables as a whole will extend into the enterprise,” IDC said.<\/p>\n

More on wearable technology<\/h3>\n

Google targets wearable tech with Android Wear<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

The future of wearable technology<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

The time of wearable tech is not nigh<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Intel targets wearable gadgets<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The worldwide wearable computing market is finally expanding beyond early adopter status, the IDC says, with shipment volumes expected to exceed 19 million units in 2014.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":54546,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[26,625,5961],"class_list":["post-55605","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hardware","tag-headline","tag-idc","tag-wearable-tech"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55605","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55605"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55605\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":55606,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55605\/revisions\/55606"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54546"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}