Wearables in the fitness realm have had a fair share of supporters as part of the quantified self trend but critics note the short-term interest in using these devices when the novelty wears off. The key to adding value is unlocking the data these devices generate and putting it to practical use in healthcare. A Gartner report announced this month seems to reflect this trend: although the appetite for things like wristbands will decline before it rebounds, smart watches and smart garments will continue to grow.
The most passive of wearables — literally clothing that contains tracking devices to measure things like heart rate — and smart watches — are not projected to decline at all. Apple’s smart watch is hitting the market next year and some are predicting it could produce 30 million in sales of them next year. Instead, Gartner projects the interest in smart garments will rise from a teeny tiny part of the market to 10 million in sales in 2015. It also sees sales more than doubling to 26 million in 2016.
Part of it stems from the need for these devices to be more passive to fit into users’ lives, a view espoused by Withings president Philippe Schwartz. But Gartner sees another trend happening with smart watches and other fitness sensors. It predicts gyms, insurance companies, weight loss clinics and employers will offer wearables, perhaps sell them at subsidized rates to encourage their use. They’ll serve as a distribution channel for device manufacturers. It also envisions fitness monitors being integrated into employee badges or identification bracelets for access control. Personally, I’m a bit intrigued as to whether people would tolerate that level of invasiveness.
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Gartner also predicts that companies serving consumers will use incentives to reward the use of their smart watches.
I think having more effective ways to aggregate and use this data could play a critical role in determining the future of wearables, particularly for clinical applications. Glooko’s collaboration with Joslin is a good example of how data can be taken from wearable devices and applied to a specific need — predicting the likelihood of hypoglycemia and helping diabetics avoid these events.
[Photo from Flickr user juhansonin]
