What are Smart Wearables?

The popular of the IoT concept has driven the market and technology development of smart wearables, among which smartwatches and smart bands take a significant role.

I. Concept of smart wearable

The smart wearable is a general name used for intelligent design and development of daily wearings, such as watches, bands, glasses, clothing, etc.

The idea of smart wearables emerged in the 1960s, while the concept became wearable products appeared in the 1970s and 1980s.

The arrival of smart wearable devices means the advancement of human intelligence.

Through these devices, we can perceive more information from outside and ourselves; process information more efficiently by connection with computers, networks, and other IoT facilities to achieve seamless communication.

Earphones, wrist straps, and glasses are common at present; smart clothing and auxiliary medical equipment are still under developing; and smart organs and implanted chips are the edge technology for the future.

All the various wearable technologies assist humans to assimilate into the IoT future more easily.

II. Smart wearables – smartwatches and smart bands

The development of the Internet has driven many related industries, among which technology and electronic consumer products are the fastest growing segments given they are closer to daily life.

Terminal products, such as mobile phones and computers, have become an indispensable part of our daily life and work. The associated market segments, like earplugs, speakers, and smart bands also become very popular.

In recent years, the smart wearable market has become the new growth point in the electronic consumer market.

With the upgrading of consumptions and the changing of health concepts, the upward trend will continue to expand in the future.

The integrated concept of smartwatch, smart band, and sports health monitoring has formed a unique differentiation, which is adored by young people. It has become the main direction of the smart wearable market in the future.

● Market scale

The original intention of smartwatches and smart bands is to assist mobile phones in recording human movement, conducting health monitoring, and cultivating scientific and good living habits.

Nowadays, it has focused more on health monitoring, relying on sensor technology to achieve value extension.

The market has entered a period of fast development and the competition is relatively intensive.

The shipment volume of the global smartwatch market increased rapidly from 32 million units in 2017 to 128 million units in 2021, at a CAGR of 31.95%.

In 2021, Apple ranked first with 30% market share, followed by Samsung and Huawei. From a regional perspective, North America, China, and Europe are the top 3.

In which, China ranked second, increasing from 20 million units in 2017 to 39 million units in 2021, with a CAGR of 14.29%, reaching 29.5 billion yuan in 2021, up to 7.8% YoY, and it will keep growing in the foreseen coming years.

● Development trend

The demand for smartwatches and smart bands in health concepts is outstanding.

The market has paid more attention to the development of designs and new applications.

In the trend of IoT and other new-generation information technologies, such as AI and 5G, with its intelligent attributes, smart wearables will become key access and interface of HMI.

III. Common display modules used in smart wearable

For the unique features of the smart wearable devices, we have introduced serial small-size LCDs and AMOLEDs for our customers in related projects.

Feel free to contact us for any query on the applications or products, our engineering team could provide a recommendation or solution as per your need.