The term wearable technology consists of two words. The first word is wearable and the second word is technology. The word wearable simply implies something that can be worn on the body. Technology has various definitions depending on the way people take it. It can mean some engineering work, when we explain in the terms of tools and mechanism. Talking in sense of marketing and industry, it can be a product or service, which can ease or simplify human life. In some other context, it can also mean something, which helps human to reduce risk in their life by making the risky work be done by some products or tools.
In the recent past, the wearable devices like Google glass and Fitbit has caught the eye of market and has shown the industry leaders that such devices have great market potential.
The history of wearable technology is very interesting. Historically first wearable device came up in 13th century. In 13th century eyeglasses to correct the refractive error in human was invented. This was followed by wearable clock, which could be worn round the neck, pocket watch and wrist watch came up respectively in 16th and 17th century.
First wearable computer was created in 1960s. First wristwatch with calculator in it was released in 1975. Four year later another wearable that became popular in the entertainment market was walkman. In 1980s, Sony launched walkman, which took the entertainment world to adopt it hand in hand as it was the first released digital hearing aid in the market.
Since then there is no looking back in wearable technology. In 2002, Bluetooth was launched. Bluetooth became very popular in the market and still occupies especial place among the gadget savvy consumers of the market. A hugshirt having Bluetooth embedded in it was launched in 2004, which also won the Grand prize at the CyberArt Festival held in Bilbao Spain the same year.
In 2006, Nike+iPads were launched for runners or sportsman. In 2010 Nike+ launched a running App, which also became very popular because it was easy to use and helped sportsperson to be free of shoe sensor or pedometer. Sony Ericsson in 2009 came up with digital clothing. They came up with a cocktail dress with Bluetooth embedded in it.
Since 2010 to 2013 Google started launching Google glasses, which were optical head-mounted device.
The best wearable devices of 2019 were Fitbit Versa and Garmin Vivosport. Garmin Vivosport comes with activity tracker features. The fusion of smartwatch and general fitness tracker can be seen in Fitbit Versa.
It is predicted by market researchers and analysts that wearable technology and wearable devices will become the market leader by 2020 and capture 55% of market review in electronic devices.
