The PC market is on the decline, that much is clear. After a disappointing holiday season, sales of desktop PCs and notebooks have continued to decline throughout 2013. Now, with PC manufacturers staring down the barrel of obsolescence, many of those companies are looking to wearable computing as the next big tech trend.
DigiTimes is reporting today that “most” PC manufacturers are now developing wearable computing products, such as smart watches. The reports unnamed “sources from the upstream supply chain” state that Apple, Epson, Acer, HTC, and Sony (which already markets a smart watch) are all now developing such products.
HTC in particular is reported to have founded an “emerging device division” focused on wearable computing devices. Apple has been rumored to be working on a smart watch since early 2013.
These companies could be onto something if predictions are correct. Demand on for the Pebble Watch Kickstarter proved incredibly high, and the watch can now be found on Best Buy shelves. Last month, analyst firm Canalys predicted that over 5 million smart watches will be shipped in 2014. The DigiTimes report cites other analysts as saying the wearable computing industry could grow to a $30 to $50 billion industry within the next five years.
(via DigiTimes)