According to IDC, shipments of wearables for the Middle East and Africa region are at an all-time high of 746,000 units in the last quarter of 2016, up 29.0% compared to same quarter in 2015.
Shipments for the region for the whole of 2016 were up 52.2%, compared to 2015. A contributing factor was the impressive performance of low-cost basic wearables which saw an increase of 67.9%, compared to the previous year. For smart wearable devices, the growth was lower at 20.7%, compared to 2015.
IDC research showed that the health and fitness market is the only sector currently addressing the wearable tech, and this is the area that smart and basic wearables perform equally well in.
Nakul Dogra, a senior research analyst for personal computing, systems, and infrastructure solutions at IDC MEA, believes that there is a shift in the way wearables are bought in that sales of wearables will increasingly be driven by fashion labels that are partnering with tech brands. Dogra also believes that wearables vendors must look to differentiate their products from smartphones and create a compelling need for wearables within the broader ecosystem of gadgets.
IDC expects the MEA wearables market to grow 24.1% in 2017, compared to 2016, to reach a total of 2.9 million units. It is also expected that the market will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 11.3% over the 2016–2021 period.
Analyst Comment
The comments about the use of fashion brands is backed up by the news that Fossil will produce 300 different designs of smartwatch this year under a lot of different brands. (BR)
