With Samsung’s Galaxy Gear smart watch selling relatively well, it appears that the wearable device market might actually be the big tech segment that manufacturers are hoping for. If so, the competition will be fierce, with clothing manufacturers hoping to stake a claim on the market as well. Already athletic clothing companies such as Nike and Adidas are marketing wearable fitness tech.
Today yet another analyst firm predicted that wearable computing will, indeed, be the next big tech market. Market research firm Juniper Research this week predicted that the wearable device market will hit 130 million shipments within five years. The market will include devices such as smart watches and smart glasses modeled after Google Glass.
“Even though wearables are relatively new in terms of market maturity, it is clear that the market, for example the smart watch in particular, will be – as per smartphones – a somewhat crowded affair,” said Nitin Bhas, a senior analyst at Juniper.
Though the wearable device market will likely take off in the coming years, Juniper also points out that privacy concerns could slow the market considerably. Though fitness-related wearable computing devices and smart watches are natural extensions of the smartphone app ecosystem, smart glasses are beginning to make people uneasy. In addition to their ability to surreptitiously record anyone in public, smart glasses could run into trouble with business owners who refuse to allow patrons to use them.