This report is a comprehensive study of the wearable sensors market, describing the technology, market trends and competitive landscape for sensors used in wearable electronic products. The report has been compiled over five years of research by the analyst team at IDTechEx, leveraging parallel expertise in many relevant technology and market sectors. The report covers 17 different types of sensor, across 10 major categories, characterising the technology, applications, and industry landscape for this. The report describes the activity of over 100 companies, including primary content (e.g. interviews, photographs, visits, etc.) with more than 50 key players from throughout the value chain. Finally, the report provides detailed quantitative market forecasts for each type of wearable sensor, leveraging unique primary data from interviews, collated financial statistics, and industry trends alongside IDTechEx's parallel forecasting for more than 50 different wearable technology product types.
Within many wearable electronic products, it is the sensors which provide the key value proposition. For example, smartwatches and fitness tracking are built around the provision of fitness tracking and activity data, gradually moving towards more medically relevant metrics. Virtual, augmented and mixed reality devices (VR, AR & MR) rely on a suite of sensors including combinations of cameras, inertial measurement units, depth sensing, force/pressure sensors and more to enable the user to interact with the content and the environment. Other product categories such as electronic skin patches, hearables, smart clothing and other related product types are all similar, each relying on a suite of core sensors which can interface with the body and surroundings as a key part of the product functionality.
IDTechEx's research in wearables tracks the progress of over 50 wearable electronic product types. Within each of these products, a key focus of the research is in understanding and characterising the core hardware behind the products, with sensors as a key part (alongside energy storage, communications, and other essential features). This report looks at the key sensor components in each of these wearable product categories, focusing on 17 different sensor types. The combination of the detailed wearable product forecasting and understanding of the sensor landscape and suppliers enables very detailed forecasting for wearable sensors, in terms of revenue, pricing, and volume, with historic data from 2010-2019 and forecasts from 2020-2031.
IDTechEx forecast for the wearable sensor market in 2022. Source: IDTechEx report: Wearable Sensors 2021-2031
IDTechEx describes the wearable sensors market in three waves. This idea, coined back in 2016, has stood the test of time and remains true to this day. The first wave includes sensors that have been incorporated in wearables for many years, often being originally developed for wearable products over previous decades. A second wave of wearable sensors came following huge technology investment in smartphones. Many of the sensors from smartphones could be easily adapted for use in wearable products; they could be "made-wearable". Finally, with the growing maturity of the wearable technology market over the past decades, many sensors are now designed from the ground up with wearable products in mind. Many of these "made-for-wearable" sensors are already well established in the market today, with more generations of new sensors being commercialised to fuel the next generations of wearable products.
Wearable sensors in three waves. Source: IDTechEx Report: Wearable Sensors 2021-2031
The wearable technology market was worth nearly $70bn in 2019, having doubled in size since 2014. Sensors have provided the core features for many of these different products throughout this rise, and they will continue to be critical into future generations of products. The COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 has brought additional focus to sensors, including tracking early onset of conditions, facilitation of wearables for contact tracing, and remote patient monitoring for patients in isolation. Parallel trends see smartwatches driving towards medical metrics, hearables adding more sophisticated sensor options, skin patches successfully commercialising in new applications and many industrial, military and security applications maturing. As such, wearable sensors remain a fundamental enabling component for the entire wearable technology industry, and obtaining a clear understanding of their capabilities and potential is essential for any player within the entire value chain.
Wearable SUS$ 5,995