Nielsen is out with its latest survey about who’s interested in wearable technology. Not a ton of surprises: 16 percent of Americans own some kind of wearable tech gear, and half of them are between 18 and 34 years old. Seventy-five percent of them say they’re “early adopters, and almost 30 percent make more than $100,000 a year.
Fitness bands (61 percent) were the most po
pular devices, followed by smart watches (45 percent) and mobile health gear (17 percent). Presumably, some people owned more than one device.
Interestingly, what people look for in their devices vary depending on what device they own. Nielsen found that smart watch owners valued functionality (81 percent) and comfort (79 percent). Fitness band owners wanted accuracy (70 percent — and good luck with that), and battery life (64 percent). Durability was important to both sets of users.
Fashion, interestingly, was not one of the top selections, although 62 percent of the early adopters said they wished that wearables came in some form other than wristwear, and 53 percent said they’d like it to look like jewelry. And 72 percent said they wished that wearable tech was less expensive. Don’t we all.
Nielsen’s survey panel includes 3,956 people over the age of 18 who own or are highly interested in wearable tech. Of those, 2,313 responded to an online self-administered survey in November 2013.