Wearables are at a crossroads right now. The industry felt a real boom last year coming off the excitement for the of eagerly-anticipated Apple and Samsung wearables, peaking with the post holidays period in January 2015. Well, according to new market research the boom times are over and it’s high time the market got down to brass tacks.
A new report from Argus Insights indicates that demand growth for wearables has slowed significantly over the first half of this year. Using data compiled from about 328,000 consumer reviews since January 2014, the report reveals that after the holiday season of 2013, consumers briefly lost interest in wearables before steadily increasing demand reached its high point in January of this year where it was four times the level of a year earlier. Since then, demand has slowed.
According to the report, the Apple Watch stole consumer interest from Fitbit and other wearables at the time of its announcement in September 2014, as potential buyers waited to determine whether they wanted the Apple Watch. Interest in Fitbit devices resumed and grew again once the Apple Watch details were announced, and Fitbit and other wearable manufacturers saw a strong 2014 holiday period.
Consumer delight, measured from the volume and the content of consumer reviews, showed that Fitbit was achieving a very high level of buzz, though the satisfaction of their consumers is dropping while Apple is quickly gaining, the report said. Other surprising insights include high consumer delight scores for smartwatch manufacturers Motorola and LG, as consumers are reporting more satisfaction from smartwatches than from fitness bands.
“Our analysis of review volume for the wearables market correlates directly with unit sales volume, and we have seen a significant slowing in consumer demand for both wearables in general and fitness bands in particular,” said John Feland, CEO and founder, Argus Insights. “Consumers expect their wearables to do more than simply count steps, just as they expect to do more than just make phone calls with their handsets. Fitbit and others in this category will need to add more to their offerings to keep consumers engaged and coming back for more.”
Edited by
Ken Briodagh