Wearable Technology – An Economic Forecast

I was asked recently to undertake an economic forecast of wearable technologies. Not only is it interesting, but it also the bread and butter of SABEL Labs so its kind of useful to know where it’s all going. I was astounded to learn its a $US7B industry already and growing. One of the challenges is to forecast how fast its growing and will it stop growing. So i looked at the production forecasts and historical data of component technologies (like Bluetooth and accelerometers), general trends like Moore’s law as well as likely areas of demand. Because its such a new market I looked for a more mature market that was quite similar in its infancy – Mobile Phones.

To begin with, Mobile phones were just phones, but slowly and through the magic of technology convergence they became cameras (so much so that at one point Nokia was the worlds largest camera manufacturer) then they became portable computers. This was when all the computer companies got interested in the phone market…and the rest is history.

So where are wearables headed, just like phones they are destined for the rising middle class of Asia, are going to push into other markets (like watches and phones) as well as the health market, with at least a decade of growth.

Anyways here is a presentation/ forecast  – I hope you like it!

Got another 60seconds, find out what you can do with wearables