Tag: wearable technology trends

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.

New wearables from a U.K. mobile tech firm are being created to help in this specific purpose.

A company based in the United Kingdom called Mobetrics, which was founded last year and specializes in smart and wearable technology, has now received the funding that it requires to start the development of a new form of wearables that are meant for nuclear decommissioning.

The new “Second Sight” system is going to use a combination of existing tech, Google Glass and Android.

The wearable technology will work by measuring and analyzing the body of workers in nuclear decommissioning projects. This will help to provide a view in real-time of what their suit temperatures, heart rates and radiation dose readings are at any given moment. The purpose of monitoring and tracking this information is to help in improving the safety level during stressful operations. It is also designed to use Google Glass to stream live mages so that workers can obtain additional information and support as needed.

The wearable technology will also offer visual messaging and barcode scanning for additional guidance and info.

Through these wearables, these workers will be able to obtain the data and technical guidance they require for more accurate, confident and efficient decision making. This helps to ensure that tasks will be completed with the greatest degree of effectiveness and safety possible.

Among the support Mobetrics has received includes that of partners from the University of Manchester, the National Nuclear Laboratory and Sellafield Ltd. According to Nick Whitehead, one of the company’s co-founders, “Mobetrics develops products that use the latest technology and by interacting closely with Sellafield we’ve been able to address the specific and unusual needs of their industry.”

He went on to explain that through the creation of new uses for hardware that is already commercially available, it means that businesses will have access to a whole new range of capabilities that have already been proven and have been deemed reliable.

Second Sight wearable technology also received funding and development from Innovus. This tech will be finding its way into the spotlight this week on November 4 in Manchester at the NDA Supply Chain Event.