Market Growth & IOT Impacts

• The IoT wearables market is considered to be still in early phases of expansion, with health and wellness tracking dominating.

•  One source notes that of all IoT-based smart devices, wearable fitness trackers the most widely adopted and most widely diffused devices.
• The global fitness trackers market has a projected growth of 20.1% between 2019 and 2024.  
•  Key market drivers are less related to IOT development and more to global trends such as the rise in awareness around staying fit and healthy, increasing incidences of health disorders across the world, and the growing global geriatric population.
• Specifically, an increase in heart disease rates in the world and the subsequent need to monitor heart conditions is propelling market growth.
• Additionally, investments have grown in the fitness tracking space in recent years, specifically funding the development of new products and advanced innovations.
• While the largest market shares for the fitness tracking market are in North America and Asia Pacific, the most rapid growth is in Europe.
• This is primarily due to the rise of interest in sports activities and increasingly healthy lifestyles in European countries.

IoT Wearable Adoption Trends

•  74% surveyed believe wearables are useful to help them interact with their physical environment and things around them.
•  1 in 3 smartphone users surveyed in 2017 believed they'd be wearing at least 5 wearable devices by 2020.
• While adoption rates increase, users of fitness wearables have become increasingly demanding. One third of buyers abandon their wearable device within two weeks of purchase, often noting they are disappointed with its performance.
•  14% of those who abandon their wearable device did so because it lacked standalone connectivity, with 46% preferring Wi-Fi and cellular connectivity combined.

Related Trends

• In the US, most fitness wearables are used by younger adults in the 25-34 year age range.
• The fitness levels of fitness trackers has shifted recently. In the past, fitness technology adoption started with the fittest consumers, but research now shows that 43% of those buying fitness wearables including trackers recently are those who do moderate to no exercise.

• Key companies in the global fitness trackers market include Fitbit, Apple, Adidas, Xiaomi Inc, Samsung Electronics, and Nike.

Fitness Tracking Market Challenges

•  Key challenges to growth in the IoT fitness tracking space include consumer concerns around data privacy, lack of skilled technicians, rapid change of technology, and affordability of devices.
• There are also limited studies that fully address factors influencing adoption challenges, with additional research required specifically to address the large attrition of consumers who no longer use or wear their device in order to effectively address consumer satisfaction challenges.