Consumer adoption of smart wearables is now nearly half (48%) of U.S. Internet households, Kristen Hanich, director of research for Parks Associates, told a Connected Health Summit audience Thursday, signaling that the category is “crossing the chasm” -- or moving from early adopters to the mainstream.
Five years ago, “adoption was half of what it is today,” she noted, adding that as the category has evolved, consumers are increasingly turning to service subscriptions on top of the cost of the wearables themselves.
One third of wearable owners now have such subscriptions, Hanich said. These are led by cellular plans, but “fitness and lifestyle subscriptions, premium health insights, and health coaching services are in demand and growing,” she explained.
The wearables market is led by smart watches, “owned and used by roughly a third of U.S. internet households,” Hanich reported, followed by smart scales, and then connected exercise equipment.
Moving up, though, are smart rings and hybrid watches (which look like dumb analog watches despite being smart). Indeed, she said that 12% of households are likely to purchase a smart ring in the next six months, a figure just about equal to those looking to purchase both hybrid watches and GPS sports watches. Smart watches and fitness trackers still lead in consumer want lists, however.
Hanich pointed out that smart rings and hybrid watches have the advantage of being screenless devices.
From the article, "Ring This Up: Smart Wearables Hitting Mainstream Status" by Les Luchter
Smart home offerings have boosted residential security by more than 15 percent in the past two years, according to Parks Associates in its report, “The New Face of Home Security—2015 Edition.” Smar...
Parks Associates’ (News - Alert) study on IT support spending for small business finds that small businesses (those will less than 250 employees) spend only $150 per month for IT services. That number...
Chris Fleck, vice president for emerging solutions at Fort Lauderdale-based Citrix Systems, said the outlook for mobile wallet products is "really positive. More and more people are living on their mo...
While US smartphone owners still use their devices mostly to text and make calls, 70% of them stream at least one video clip daily, states a Parks Associates report on "Mobility and the App Economy."...
