Consumer Intentions to Buy Smart Watches Soaring, Futuresource Says
Consumer intentions to buy smart watches soared in recent months, said a consumer research report released Wednesday by Futuresource Consulting. The firm canvassed a total of 8,000 consumers in France, Germany, the U.K. and the U.S. in two "waves" --…
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once in May and again in October -- and found interest in buying a smart watch jumped 125 percent between the two waves, it said. Consumer intentions to buy fitness trackers jumped 50 percent, it said. However, interest in smart glasses and heart rate monitors has "stalled," it said. "The overall wearables market has seen significant growth so far in 2014, with Futuresource forecasting full year sales of more than 51 million units worldwide," the company said. "However, it's only just warming up, and wearables sales are expected to accelerate from 2015 as new brands enter the space." The "most marked change" since May is the strong growth in the number of iPhone owners intending to purchase wearable devices, Futuresource said. In terms of purchase intentions on wearables, "iPhone owners now lead the way in all categories," particularly in smart watches, which 17 percent of iPhone owners expressed an intent to purchase in the next 12 months, up from only 6 percent in May 2014, it said. "This increase coincides with September's announcement of the Apple Watch. As Apple customers are typically some of the earliest adopters of new technologies, their increasing engagement with the smart watch category is a strong positive for the Apple Watch release in early 2015."