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
Netflix’s reign as the largest subscription-based over-the-top (OTT) streaming video on-demand (SVOD) service continues (no surprise there), but there was movement in Parks Associates’ ranking of the...
New market research from Parks Associates reveals Apple Watch owners are more engaged with their connected wearable devices than other brands. Three in 10 Apple Watch owners (31%) use voice commands t...
Eight percent of U.S. young adult Millennials (1.5 million) intend to purchase a VR headset this year, according to market research from Parks Associates released in September. That’s more than double...
Half of the people who try a virtual reality (VR) headset say they intend to buy a VR headset. But just 15 percent actually do, according to new market research from Parks Associates. Retailers and...
