Shipment of wearables devices is forecast to reach around 344 million in 2022 from more than 300 million wearables devices shipped in 2021, global technology intelligence firm ABI Research said in its latest report.
Demand for wearables and accessories slowed during 2021 due to economic and geopolitical factors impacting consumer’s priorities.
More than 650 million of these devices are expected to be shipped worldwide by 2027, a CAGR of 13.2 percent between 2022 and 2027.
Up to the end of the current year, the growth in the wearables market will be driven mainly by two segments, namely sport, fitness, and wellness trackers and smart home-enabled smartwatches.
“This year, smartwatches will continue to dominate the wearables market due to the strength of the Apple smartwatch and the growing number of companies offering smartwatches with impressive functionalities,” says David McQueen, Consumer Technologies Research Director at ABI Research.
The increasing demand for activity trackers is predicted to drive the wearables market. Activity trackers will reach shipments of about 91.5 million by the end of 2022 and are forecast to reach 105 million by 2027, a CAGR of 2.9 percent.
Smart home-enabled smartwatches (smartwatches with the ability to interact with smart home devices) represented about 4 million devices in 2021 and is expected to expand to 32 million in 2027, a CAGR of 35.8 percent between 2022 and 2027. This category will mainly be shipped with a 4G connection, producing a spectacular CAGR of about 60 percent from 2022 to the end of 2027.
ABI Research forecasts 5G smart home-enabled smartwatches to be in the market by 2024.
The global smartwatch market recorded about 102.57 million shipments during 2021 and is expected to increase to 121.03 million by the end of 2022. The market is forecast to grow to 289.7 million units worldwide by 2027, a CAGR of 19 percent.
During 1Q 2022, Apple was the lead vendor with 49.6 percent of the market share, followed by Huawei (17.8 percent), and Samsung (11.4 percent). In terms of connectivity, 4G smartwatches will be the main devices shipped with a penetration rate of 5 percent during 2022, while 5G will appear in 2023, with a low penetration rate of about 0.3 percent.
