Everyone’s talking about smart accessories (like smart watches) these days and Juniper Research forecasts that hardware and service revenues from these devices will grow from $2 billion this year to more than $23 billion in 2018, with accessory shipments approaching 170 million. The key areas driving this growth will be fitness, health, Consumer Electronics (CE), payments and enterprise devices.
This revenue growth will be propelled by four key elements, including an increase in the adoption of the SaaS proposition, development of additional services delivered within the app, emergence of a “freemium” model in fitness and healthcare wearables, and the rise of payment transaction revenues.
The development of a robust environment for the creation of peripheral based business models will affect how revenue is generated within the market along with technology standards and regulations playing their part, especially with regard to payments and healthcare accessories.
The report notes that while new, use cases will emerge in the consumer electronics market over the forecast period, the business case supporting payment smart wireless accessories is both intuitive and credible.
The research firm believes that a multi-channel strategy is essential to gain traction in the race to secure a place in this new market.