Wearables are smart electronic devices (electronic devices with micro-controllers) that can be incorporated into clothing or worn on the body as implants or accessories. Modern wearables entered the mass market ten years ago in the form of the Fitbit. Over the past decade, a variety of smartwatches, fitness trackers, clothing, headphones, and virtual/augmented reality devices have entered the marketplace. Initially, they were and in some cases, still are a novelty. However, when the top companies get into the market, you know the pace of things can change quickly. So, where do we stand today?

Well, if you look at Apple’s recent performance, 2020 looks like it will be a good year for wearables. Apple had record-high fourth-quarter earnings due in large part to their wearables lines.

“It was an incredible quarter for wearables,” Cook said. “It was a very broad range of services that set new all-time records, from our payment services to the search ad business to Apple Music, Apple Care, the App Store and cloud services – almost every kind of service we’re in.”
Apple’s revenue is increasingly coming from accessories such as the Apple Watch and AirPods as well as new services such as its Apple Card credit card and streaming television service.

Apple plans to continue to expand in the wearable marketplace, especially enhancing the health-related monitoring capabilities of their devices. At this point, wearables tech is showing no signs of stopping. We look forward to seeing what happens over the next year.