Wearables: Growth Expectations For Fitness Trackers and Smartwatches Slashed By Experts

Holiday wish lists are full of the latest tech, but you won’t find many people hoping to unwrap a smartwatch or fitness tracker this year. Market analyst eMarketer recently slashed its predictions for wearables sales in 2017.

According to the research company, the current offerings on the market for wearable technology—particularly smartwatches—has left consumers wanting. As such, eMarketer is forecasting just a 24.7 percent growth for wearables in the coming year.

The shift in what was not long ago considered an area of major growth follows a year of dismal sales and even worse engagement. According to eMarketer, 39.5 million adults in the United States will use a wearable device at least once a month—which may sound good, until it’s compared to the forecasted figure of 63.7 million monthly users.

According to a report released earlier this month from International Data Corporation (IDC), the wearable market saw just a 3.1 percent growth during the third quarter of 2016 compared to the same time frame in 2015. The biggest name in the wearable market, Apple, saw a massive drop off of 71 percent thanks to stagnant sales of the Apple Watch.

Fitness trackers continue to dominate the market in general, experiencing an 85 percent growth according to IDC. Those figures seem to sync with the findings from eMarketer, which found smartwatches to fail to impress.

“Without a clear use case for smart watches—which have more features than fitness trackers, but significant overlap with smartphone functionality—the more sophisticated, expensive devices have not caught on as quickly as expected,” eMarketer analyst Cathy Boyle said.

Young adults have had a much higher adoption rate with wearables than most other demographics, with 30 percent of people aged 18 through 34 regularly using wearables. By comparison, just 17.6 percent of the overall population has adopted these devices.

It’s not all bad news for wearables, though. A r eport from Transparency Market Research suggests wearables will be in high demand by 2020—the growth just won’t come from consumers. The medical industry is expected to start adopting wearables at a higher rate to help patients with tracking their health and to gather data that can be used to shape diagnoses and treatment plans.