Wearables Market Continues to Expand
Trending Now: Wearables technology is rapidly diversifying and growing globally.
A Frost & Sullivan report, Growth Opportunities in the Global Wearable Devices Market, finds that wearable devices will play a large role in the healthcare industry delivering improved healthcare services through real-time, remote patient monitoring and post-surgery rehabilitation. Smart watches and fitness bands are the most popular wearable devices.
“Wearable devices will extend beyond fitness tracking to include two-way communication between the user and the healthcare ecosystem," says Frost & Sullivan Information & Communication Technologies Senior Research Analyst Shuba Ramkumar. “Though a number of applications currently address the business-to-consumer market, wearable devices will eventually offer support to healthcare institutions by sharing real-time data collected by the consumer."
Pursuing alternative business models will sustain customer interest in wearable devices. Service-based models and enterprise or vertical market partnerships will be especially effective in pushing wearable technology to the mass market.
10 Trends in Wearables
A recent white paper from Tractica, Wearables: 10 Trends to Watch, highlights key market trends for wearables that are worth watching as the market moves from an early adopter stage to becoming a mass-market proposition. According to the report, the wearable technology market is a combination of multiple device types, applications, and use cases. The breadth and diversity of the market makes it unique, and unlike any other consumer electronics category that has existed before. New device categories are emerging, applications are proliferating in consumer and enterprise markets alike, and business models are evolving rapidly.
“The wearables market is a collection of micro trends within each device segment, application area, and world region," says research director Aditya Kaul. “It is important to examine each of these areas closely in order to gain a comprehensive view about how the market will take shape in the years ahead."
Key trends analyzed by Tractica within the white paper include the following:
1. The diversification of wearables beyond just smart watches and fitness trackers
2. The growth of wearable operating systems beyond just Apple and Google
3. A shifting market focus toward wearable user interfaces and analytics
4. The role of North America as the primary market for wearables, with China ascending as a major market
5. Corporate wellness programs and the “quantified enterprise"
6. The continuing importance of crowdfunding in the wearables market
7. The emergence of wearables as a service
8. The prospects for smart clothing as a key wearable technology category
9. The merging of wearable cameras and virtual reality (VR)
10. The role of smart augmented reality (AR) glasses in the future of computing platforms
Ralph Lauren Polo Tech Shirt Available to Public
Designer Ralph Lauren’s high-performance Polo Tech shirt is now available to the public for $298 a shirt.
The shirt features sensors knitted into the core of the product to read biological and physiological information. The shirt was developed with proprietary technology from Canadian-based OMsignal, whose team includes experts in neuroscience, sports medicine, and engineering. With OMsignal, the shirt itself is the sensor. The OM platform delivers a wide variety of physiological data through seamless apparel directly to the users via an app on their smartphone.
The data collected by the shirt is stored by a “black box," which includes an accelerometer and gyroscope, which capture movement and direction. That black box transmits the data into the cloud, where it is plugged into a number of algorithms that gauge performance-oriented biometrics, including heartbeat and respiration, as well as some psychometrics, such as stress level and energy output.
Beyond elite athletes, the company envisions a place for the shirt in everyday life, transcending sports to help people at every age stay healthier.
Google and DexCom Aim to Develop Smaller Diabetes Technology
DexCom, a provider of continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) for people with diabetes, is working jointly with the life-sciences team at Google to develop a series of next-generation CGM products that are designed to be smaller and less expensive than existing technologies. The FDA approved the Dexcom G5 Mobile Continuous Glucose Monitoring (CGM) System in August.
With wireless Bluetooth technology built into the device transmitter, the G5 Mobile CGM System is the first and only fully mobile CGM system approved by the FDA for both adults and children as young as 2 years of age that sends glucose data directly to a smartphone, freeing users from the need to carry a separate receiver. Initial products to be developed under the agreement will focus on minimizing both the cost and size of CGM body worn components. (PV)
