About 275 million wearable electronic devices will be sold worldwide in 2016, an increase of 18% from 232 million units in 2015, according to Gartner.
The market research firm said in a report sales of wearable electronic devices will generate revenue of $28.7 billion in 2016, of which $11.5 billion will be from smartwatches.
"From 2015 through 2017, smartwatch adoption will have 30% growth largely due to Apple popularizing wearables as a lifestyle trend,” said Angela McIntyre, research director at Gartner.
“Smartwatches have the greatest revenue potential among all wearables through 2019, reaching $17.5 billion.
"Of all the fitness wearables, sports watches will be the one product category to maintain its average retail price over the next several years," said McIntyre. "Race runners, cyclists and divers will choose sports watches over smartwatches because the user interface, capabilities and durability are tailored to the needs of an athlete in their sport.”
She said continued advances in sensors and analytics for sports watches will bring new capabilities that bolster average retail prices."
Although the size of the worldwide wristband market was on par with the unit sales of smartwatches in 2015, looking forward smartwatches will have stronger appeal with consumers as they typically have more multifunctional devices that can track exercise.
Wristband providers are experimenting with how to compete with smartwatches and take market share from the market leader, Fitbit. Examples of emerging value propositions for wristbands beyond fitness include mobile payments, access, safety, wellness and health.
Head-mounted displays (HMDs) are an emerging market with origins as expensive military projects, and in 2016 the HMD market will progress toward mainstream adoption for consumers and enterprise use.
Enterprise use of HMDs will also grow in the coming years with 26% of HMDs designed for business use in 2018. HMDs will be purchased by businesses for use by employees for tasks such as equipment repair, inspections and maintenance. Workers also will use HMDs for viewing instructions and directions hands free while they are performing a task.