According to a report released by market research firm IDC, global smart watch shipments in 2018 will reach 46.2 million, an increase of 38.9% from 33.3 million last year. In addition, it is estimated that by 2022, global smart watch shipments will more than double to 94.3 million, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 19.5% within 5 years, and will account for nearly half of the total wearable devices of 190.4 million units. market.
IDC's report shows that the global wearable device market is expected to ship 122.6 million units in 2018, an increase of 6.2% from 115.4 million units in 2017. This will be the first year that the growth rate of the wearable device market has fallen to single-digit percentages, which is mainly due to the continued weak performance of basic wearable devices (which cannot execute third-party applications).
However, as smart watches and new specifications are accepted by the market, the wearable device market will resume double-digit percentage growth in 2019 and continue into 2022. IDC predicts that from 2018 to 2022, the global wearable device market will grow at a CAGR of 11.6%, reaching 190.4 million units.
IDC senior research analyst Jitesh Ubrani believes that it is still in the transition period from basic wearables to smart watches. These relatively basic wearable devices focus on fitness tracking, and the market size will continue to expand in the future.
Ramon Llamas, research director of the IDC Wearables team, said: "We hope to bring a smarter smart watch-like experience to these basic devices. In addition, wearable devices such as clothing and earrings will further promote the rapid growth of the market.
In addition, earwear device shipments will grow sixfold to 12.3 million units in 2022, becoming the fastest-growing wearable device type. Experts predict that functions such as smart assistants, fitness tracking and real-time language translation will be incorporated into ear-worn devices.
According to IDC, the Apple Watch will continue to lead the wearable device market, but its market share is expected to decline by about 10% to 36.2% by 2022. Android wearables have a market share of about 22.2%, ranking second.