Spending on wearable devices such as smart watches and fitness trackers continues to rise in 2021- 2022

Market size of wearable devices such as smartwatches and fitness will continue to rise throughout 2021 – 2022.

Market research company Gartner said that throughout 2020, wearable devices such as smart watches and fitness trackers have benefited from the new Coronavirus epidemic. Consumer spending on such devices may continue to rise between 2021 and 2022. Gartner predicts that the total global sales of wearable devices in 2020 will be 69 billion US dollars. This is an increase of 49% over 2019, and this trend may continue for at least a few years. 

• Analysts predict that sales of wearable devices in 2021 will reach 81.5 billion U.S. dollars.
• This is an increase of 18.1% over 2020, and may reach 93.9 billion U.S. dollars in 2022.
• According to Gartner, the epidemic is the main factor driving the surge in sales of wearable devices.

The introduction of health measures, self-tracking of COVID-19 symptoms, as well as consumers’ increasing interest in personal fitness and health during the global lockdown, this is something that can be drive wearable sales.  

• Sales of ear-worn devices such as AirPods have increased by 124% in 2020, reaching 32.7 billion U.S. dollars.
• This is expected to reach 39.2 billion U.S. dollars in 2021.

Gartner attributes this growth to the trend of consumers buying new headsets and using headsets for video calls. People are more inclined to buy headsets when their smartphones are upgraded.  In the smartwatch market including AppleWatch

• Consumer spending increased by US$17.6 billion in 2020 to reach US$21.8 billion.
• It is expected to reach US$25.8 billion in 2021.
• It is believed that this is driven by “a large number of new users entering the market”.

The growth in 2021 is expected to benefit from the introduction of new processor technology and solid-state battery upgrades.

This upgrades will increase battery life and shorten charging times. Sales of wristband trackers have not changed much, with a year-on-year decline of 2.3% in 2020 to $4.98 billion.

 Gartner believes that this trajectory will remain the same, and sales will further decline slightly in 2021.Analysts are hopeful that improved accuracy of wearable device sensors and the reduced gap with medical-grade hardware narrows, will lead to surge of wristbands.

The ability of embedded sensors is a decisive factor in the reliability and practicability of wearable products.

 Taking into account the improvement trend of sensors in the past few years, the built-in sensors of wearable devices will become more and more capable. Accurate readings will drive market growth in the next 3-5 years.