Wearable equipment shipments will increase by more than 8 million this year to 23 million

Wearable devices are a hot topic on the Wall Street Journal's Web site on February 12, and even China's low-cost electronics makers are itching to do so. So how big is this market? Canalys, a market-research firm, predicts that this year's smart wristband, which is worn on the wrist and used as a smartphone, could produce more than 8 million shipments, which will grow by nearly twice to 23 million next year and grow to 45 million in 2017. Canalys's "Smart wrist strap" in the study includes smart watches issued by Samsung, Sony, and Pebble, but does not include wrist-banding devices that do not run applications. By contrast, Apple sold 51 million iphones in the first quarter ending December 28, 2013. "We expect Apple to boost the growth of the smart wrist strap," said Daniel Matte, Canalys analyst Daniel Matt. "His forecasts for this year's smart wristband are conditional: Samsung will launch its new Galaxy Gear smart watch, and Apple and Google will release smart wristband products." In addition to the release of Smart wristband products by major technology giants, the involvement of Chinese manufacturers will also drive the growth of the smart wristband market, Matt said. Huawei said this week it plans to unveil a wrist-strap product at the Global Mobile Communications Conference (Congress) later this month, and ZTE plans to release a smart watch in the second quarter. At the International Consumer Electronics Show in early January, wearable equipment was a hot topic and the wearable equipment exhibited was enough to "arm" the user. In a report published in July 2013, Canalys predicted that the shipments of smart watches this year would grow from 330,000 in 2012 to 5 million. Although the smart wristband market is growing at an alarming rate, the market size is relatively small compared to smartphones. Global smartphone shipments last year were about 1 billion, according to IDC, a market research firm. Most consumers do not have the urgent need to buy smart devices worn on their wrists. Matt says he expects the technology giant's wearable equipment to focus on the ability to record health, and that health care consumers will be the main driver of wearable equipment development. Bamboo)