Wearables market to grow 173 percent: IDC

The wearables market will maintain its momentum and see a strong growth of over 173% during this fiscal, an International Data Corporation (IDC) report on Monday said.

According to the report, almost 72.1 million wearable devices will be shipped in 2015, up a strong 173.3% from the 26.4 million units shipped in 2014.

The report also predicts that shipment volumes are expected to experience a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 42.6% over the five-year forecast period, reaching 155.7 million units shipped in 2019.

'The demand for basic wearables, those that do not run third-party apps, has been absolutely astounding,' said Jitesh Ubrani, senior research analyst, worldwide mobile device trackers.

'Vendors like Fitbit and Xiaomi have helped propel the market with their sub-$100 brands, and IDC expects this momentum will continue throughout 2015,' he added.

Also, the report states that while basic wearables will see a growth of 76% year-on-year growth in the financial year 2015, the smart wearables market will see a growth of 683%.

'We expect smart wearables, those capable of running third party apps, to take the lead in 2016,' Ubrani said.

'Smart wearables like the Apple Watch and Microsoft's Hololens are indicative of an upcoming change in computing, and the transition from basic to smart wearables opens up a slew of opportunities for vendors, app developers, and accessory makers,' he added.

Recently, the market has seen a lot of activity as it readies itself to face the repercussions of the iWatch entering the market.

'Growth in the smart wearables market points to an emerging battleground among competing platforms,' said Ramon Llamas, research manager, wearables.

'Android Wear, Tizen, and WatchOS are moving ahead with improved user interfaces, user experiences, and applications. These will raise the expectations of what a smart wearable can do, and each platform is vying for best-in-class status. We're not there yet, but we're seeing the building blocks of what is to come,' he added.