We’ve all seen research reports with blue-sky hockey-stick graphs saying that the wearables market will be worth eleventy-gazillion dollars in 2018. But here’s a sober look that puts a size on the market today: $8 billion, with most of it on your wrist.
Futuresource says fitness devices currently make up about 97 percent of the wearables market — a proportion that will drop as segments such as eyewear begin to hit the market. (Google Glass is set for commercial introduction in 2014, for instance.) The company expects fewer than a million eyewear units to be sold in 2014, rising to nearly 7 million in 2017.
Total 2017 wearables market estimation? A believable $20 billion, if major consumer electronic brands enter the market by 2015, as seems likely.