Mintel’s consumer research shows that, at present, wearable technology only has a fairly niche appeal and adoption of wrist-worn devices remains limited to 9% of UK adults.

While wearables uptake has been initially driven by health- and sports-related applications, security and lack of a killer application currently represent the main barriers to consumer adoption, despite three fifths of UK adults saying they would actually be interested in some sort of information alert through a wearable device.

Mintel estimates that over 3 million wrist-worn wearable devices will be sold in the UK in 2015, up by 118% from 2014, mainly thanks to smartwatches gaining traction in the market after major product launches from market leaders like Samsung and Apple.

The term ‘wearable technology’ (also referred to as ‘wearable devices’ or ‘wearables’) in this report refers to a category of technology devices that can be worn on the body, either as an accessory or as items of clothing.

Generally, wearable technology can perform some of the same computing tasks as smartphones and have the ability to connect to the Internet, which enables data exchange. In addition, they can provide sensory and scanning features such as biometrics and tracking of physiological functions and allow for real-time access to this information.

As far as this report is concerned, the definition encompasses smartwatches, fitness bands, smart glasses or headsets, smart clothing and smart jewellery. Mintel’s market size estimates, however, only cover fitness bands and smartwatches.

This report only covers the UK consumer market for wearable technology; business-to-business sales are excluded from market data, and analysis refers only to trends in consumer markets unless specifically stated.