Wearable devices are growing fast

According to GfK last year 17,6 million wearable devices were sold in the world. Of them, 13.5 million were health and fitness trackers, compared to 4.1 million smartwatches. With major companies expected to enter the market this year, GfK predicts that the combined market will reach 51.2 million sales in 2015 – three times the size of 2014 – with both segments showing equal importance in this converging market. Last year, actual sales of health and fitness trackers (HFT) easily outstripped smartwatches. As GfK underlines, this was driven, in part, by the significantly lower average sales price of HFT, making these devices more affordable than full-feature smartwatches. Another reason for the higher popularity of HFT (according to a GfK survey of 5000 smartphone owners across five countries1) is the fact that a majority of consumers see activity tracking as being the most important function of a wearable – including a smartwatch – at the present time.