Next Wave of Wearables Customers Extremely Style-Conscious, Says IDC Report
Consumers who are tech-savvy, highly social and extremely style-conscious will lead the next wave of wearables adoption in the U.S., but they haven’t yet bought into the technology, said an IDC report Tuesday. Consumers who intend to buy wearables “are…
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enthusiastic about wearables but have hesitated to actually purchase a device,” said analyst Allan Fromen, and that implies “companies have not yet cracked the code to deliver something that is both functional and fashionable.” Companies need to focus on aesthetics, “perhaps even more so than the features,” Fromen said. Of consumers who intend to buy wearables in the next six months, 89 percent are comfortable with technology, 76 percent check their smartphone first thing in the morning and 87 percent use Facebook, with 29 percent checking Facebook hourly, said IDC. On the style front, 81 percent were conscious of how they present themselves, 77 percent said how they dress is important to them, 66 percent said clothing is an expression of who they are and 63 percent said accessories such as jewelry and watches “say something about me.” Wearable intenders' preferred brands differ by category. Most preferred brands are Apple (52 percent) for smartwatches, Fitbit (37 percent) for fitness trackers, Google (36 percent) for eyewear and Nike (40 percent) for clothing, it said. The wearables market is still in “early stages,” which gives companies in the ecosystem “opportunity to grab mind share and market share," said IDC analyst Ramon Llamas. "Intenders are gravitating towards tech companies for wearables because tech companies have helped pioneer and move the market forward,” said Llamas, who will watch “how tech companies partner with non-tech companies to develop new applications, or even how non-tech companies can compete in this space.” IDC's wearables intender data is based on 1,500 surveys among U.S. consumers who intend to buy a wearables product in the next six months.