Sales of wearable devices set for a big leap

IDC forecasts that the wearable device market in Asia Pacific will grow at a rapid rate, with sales reaching over 40 million units by 2019, up from five million units last year, and is expected to be around 12 million units in 2015.

This year, the wearable device market in Thailand is forecasted to be between 3,000 to 5,000 units per quarter.

Jarit Sidhu, an IDC senior market analyst of client devices, said the market would grow in the same way as smartphones and was initially being driven by basic devices although smart wearable devices would take the lead later.

The Apple watch was the key factor driving the growth of the smart wearable device market, he said.

The device types set to dominate the market in Thailand include watches and bands, the analyst said.

Price ranges

Basic wearable devices range in price from Bt3,000 to Bt6,000 while the smart wearable devices range in price from Bt6,000 to Bt30,000.

"Smart wearable devices support third-party applications in the same way as smartphones differ from basic mobile phones," the analyst said. "The growth of the wearable device market will be led by consumers and followed by business use."

The smartphone market continues to enjoy strong growth in Thailand.

Nutchanon Boonsorn, a client device analyst at IDC, said that Thailand’s smartphone market was the second-largest in Asean behind Indonesia.

The company forecast that there would be 35 million smartphone users in Thailand this year and nearly 50 million in 2017.

"In 2015, Thailand’s smartphone market is two-times bigger than the market size in 2013, while more than half of the smartphones sold in Thailand are now lower than Bt15,000," said Nutchanon.