NextMarket, a new research firm focused on emerging customer technologies, released the Smartwatch Forecast 2013-2020 report. According to NextMarket blog post, factors such as the growing adoption of smartwatch software and wireless technologies by traditional watchmakers, the continued advancement of screen and mobile processor technologies and the strong expansion of smartwatches in the children and
health/active lifestyle segments will drive the overall smartwatch market from 15 million watches shipped in 2014 to over 373 million by 2020.The report features forecasts of all global regions, revenues, standalone and companion smartwatches, smartwatch apps and smartwatch operating systems.
"Going forward, we see the smartwatch market coalescing around three major software camps," says Wolf. "The vast majority of smartwatches will be built using existing or modified versions of Android, new smartwatch operating systems such as the Pebble OS, and - assuming that Apple ultimately gets into the market - iOS."
"The watch industry ships over 1 billion watches a year, and there are nearly 7 billion mobile subscribers worldwide today," says Michael Wolf, Chief Analyst. "We believe the smartwatch category can become a substantial market opportunity even with fairly modest penetration of the broader mobile and watch-wearing public."
"We believe native voice and data capabilities in smartwatches will be attractive to a segment of the market," says Wolf. "Both for those who would use it in backup and lifeline scenarios, as well as those who see might see a smartwatch as a replacement for a phone in certain use cases common in the youth and active lifestyle watch segments."
