Category: Featured News

A new forecast from IDC has predicted that smartwatches, fitness trackers and other wearables are rising fast.

This year, the International Data Corporation (IDC) reported a massive surge in the wearable technology market, which it said saw growth of 300 percent due to the sale of products such as the Fitbit Surge, Apple Watch and Pebble Time.

The IDC has released a report saying that by the end of 2016, worldwide shipments will hit 111.1 million.

That will mean that wearable technology will have seen an increase of 44 percent over the figure from 2015. That said, by the year 2019, shipments of wearables will have broken through the 214.6 million mark. According to the wearables team research manager at IDC, Ramon Llamas, “In a short amount of time, smartwatches have evolved from being extensions of the smartphone to wearable computers capable of communications, notifications, applications, and numerous other functionalities.”

It was also pointed out that wearable technology devices are experiencing a rapid evolution.

Llamas went on to point out that just because they’re starting to sell and they will be seeing rapid growth over coming years, it doesn’t mean that the smartwatches we currently know will be the ones that actually take off over the next few years. He explained that “The smartwatch we have today will look nothing like the smartwatch we will see in the future.”

He also underscored the forecast that the details of these devices will be quite different from what we currently see. The health sensors, cellular connectivity and even the wearables app market – which is already rapidly on the grow – will be ready to provide serious game changing evolutions in this market. Llamas feels that it will be in those areas that the gadgets will start to define themselves as having value and will become appealing to consumers.

While many of its predictions aligned well with other reports that have been issued by various prediction firms, the IDC report was somewhat different in that it has said that watchOS and Android Wear will be grabbing the top two spots (respectively). That said, it also stated that Tizen from Samsung will carve out an important segment of the market over the next four years, as well, to the point that it might swipe away some of the share that would otherwise have belonged to Android Wear.

UnionPay and Powa Technologies team to expand mobile payments options in China

China’s UnionPay is entering into the mobile payments space. The bank, which is one of China’s largest financial institutions, has entered into a partnership with Powa Technologies, a company that has been involved in the mobile payments space for some time. Together, the two organizations will be working with one another in order to bring new solutions to consumers in China, which will bring more competition into the mobile payments sector and ensure the continued growth of this sector in the coming years.

Companies will launch joint venture in the Guangdong Province next year

UnionPay accounts for some 1.3 million credit and debit card users in the country and is also the world’s largest merchant acquirer, representing some 6 million merchants. Powa Technologies notes that the two companies are expected to launch a joint venture in the first quarter of 2016. This joint venture will be responsible for the launch of a new mobile payments platform, which will initially be available in the Guangdong Province, which has a population of more than 106 million, many of whom are beginning to rely on their mobile devices to shop and pay their bills.

PowaTag will be used for the new mobile payments platform

The new mobile payments platform will be using technology developed by Powa Technologies, called PowaTag. The company is working with UnionPay to develop a special version of PowaTag, which will be more attuned to the needs of consumers in China. The platform will focus on the online-to-offline (O2O) market, which is generated some $47 billion in China alone during the first half of this year.

China continues to show itself as a leading mobile payments market

Mobile payments have experienced explosive growth in China, where large companies like Alibaba and Tencent have established a major lead in the sector. Foreign companies have been attempting to enter China’s mobile payments markets, but many of the country’s banks have proven to be resistant to their efforts. China is expected to continue growing as a leading mobile commerce market in the coming years, especially as smartphone penetration continues to grow.