One in five Americans will soon purchase a wearable device

 

Dec. 8, 2014

According to recent research conducted by Ipsos MediaCT, nearly one in five (18 percent) American adults say they will probably or definitely purchase a wearable device of some type in the next 12 months, pushing intended category purchases ahead of other popular tech gear, including streaming media devices (16 percent), e-readers (15 percent) and 4K TVs (10 percent).

"We have been tracking consumer attitudes and device adoption for quite some time, and are excited to share our market understanding about this latest category entrant," said Julia Roland, vice president with Ipsos MediaCT. "The findings indicate positive news for tech gear brands: We're seeing robust consumer enthusiasm and promising sales potential across a range of product types."

Although wearable computers are just starting to enter the market in greater numbers, awareness levels are fairly consistent with the decade-old wearable fitness market. On an overall basis, more than four in 10 adults are very familiar with wearable computers (41 percent) and wearable fitness monitors (46 percent). Young adults lead in awareness for both wearable computers (54 percent) and fitness monitors (61 percent).

Similar to awareness levels, the study found that purchase intent is higher among young adults (26 percent wearable computers, 31 percent wearable fitness monitors) and current owners, those who own some kind of wearable technology (66 percent wearable computers, 45 percent wearable fitness monitors). Men have especially taken to purchasing wearable computers (19 percent) compared to their female counterparts (8 percent), yet purchase intent is equally strong for fitness devices regardless of gender (19 percent and 18 percent, respectively).