While not typically considered to be among the industries or markets to experience any direct or significant growth due to the modern wearable tech boom, the global market for batteries used in wearable electronics will grow more than tenfold in the next four years.
The growth will be almost entirely propelled by portable new products especially suitable for active sports and fitness lifestyles, based on market estimates from IHS Technology.
Worldwide revenue for wearable electronics batteries is projected to reach $77 million by 2018, up considerably from a mere $6 million by year-end in 2014. This year marks the first time of significant volume for the market from a virtually non-existent base last year, and revenue will continue to climb very rapidly in the next few years ahead.
By 2018, IHS suggests, industry takings will have grown nearly 120 percent from 2014 levels, as shown in the attached figure.
“Wearable electronics will be the key to sustaining the current very-high-growth levels of battery revenue in consumer electronics,” said Thomas McAlpine, an analyst for IHS. “The tremendous expansion in store will come thanks to an increase in the shipments of smartwatch products, wearable health monitoring devices and smart glasses—products geared toward an active lifestyle combining advanced technological trends in miniature computing with newly smart consumer imperatives in fitness and fashion.
In all, annual shipments for wearable electronic devices will reach an estimated 56 million units by 2018, fueling continued demand for the batteries that power these products, McAlpine added in the report summary.
