Few days back, Google made an announcement of acquiring intellectual property of smartwatch from Fossil for $40 million. Nobody knows, what is that technology for which tech giant is paying such a huge money, but reports from research companies like Allied Market Research indicate that smartwatch market globally is booming, so it make lot of sense to have Google Watch in the market
In 2018, the global smartwatch market accounted for $9.26 billion and it is expected to garner $31.07 billion by 2025, registering a CAGR of 16.2% from 2018 to 2025. Currently, the market is dominated by companies like Apple, Motorola, Samsung, Huawei, Fitbit, Sony, and LG. And, Google knows that product launch is one of the key strategy adopted by players to gain a stronghold in the market and that is what it is likely to do in 2019 when it goes for hardware blitz.
Out of the total wearable market, standalone smartwatch segment held the largest share in 2017, accounting for more than half of the total market revenue. Moreover, report indicates that this segment is expected to witness the fastest CAGR of 18.6%, owing to attractive features such independent operability as a mobile phone and better battery backup.
In fact, WatchOS segment garnered the largest share in 2017, contributing more than two-fifths of the total revenue, owing to its ability to offer features such as thinner and slimmer than other counterparts, ergonomic design, and provision of electrocardiogram and pedometer sensors. However, the RTOS operating system is expected to manifest the fastest CAGR of 22.5%, owing to its ability to enable access to a smartphone provider's proprietary library of third-party applications, perform multiple tasks simultaneously, offer longer battery life, and facilitate ease of customization for manufacturers.
For wearable market, healthcare segment is another promising segment. It is expected to register the fastest CAGR of 17.9% through 2025, owing to rise in health awareness for continuous tracking of heart rate, sleep, blood pressure, and nervous system; need for getting reminders about taking medicines & taking fitness goals; and increased use in tracking female health.
This growth is challenge by premium pricing of smartwatches, slow internet connectivity in developing countries, and limited battery life hamper the market growth. On the other hand, use of smartwatch in e-learning and heavy inflow of investment to build a connected ecosystem are expected to create lucrative opportunities to the market players in future.
As far as region is concern, Allied Market Research report said that North America held the largest share in 2017, contributing more than one-third of the total revenue. However, Asia-Pacific region is projected to register the fastest CAGR of 19.4%, thanks to surge in disposable income, large millennial population, and improvement in internet connectivity in the developing countries such as China.
