smartwatch
New Samsung Gear 2 smartwatch is displayed at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona February 23, 2014. Samsung Electronics unveiled a new smart watch and fitness band along with the latest version of its flagship Galaxy smartphone on Monday, demonstrating how the battleground for innovation is shifting from the hand to the wrist. Picture taken on February 23. REUTERS/Albert Gea REUTERS/Albert Gea

Researches indicate that wrist-worn devices will dominate the smart wearable market in the coming days. CCS Insight’s global forecast shows the shipments of smart wearables are expected to rise from 9.7 million in 2013 to 135 million in 2018.

The CCS Insight’s forecast predicts that wrist-worn devices will account for 87% of wearable to be shipped in 2018. This will include 68 million smartwatches and 50 million smart bands with one-line display. By 2018, over 250 million smart wearable will be in use, 14 times more than in 2013.

Currently, North America leads in terms of adoption of wearable device. But studies conducted by CCS Insight’s by 2016 Western European consumers will buy more smart wearable than North America.

A similar study by Tractica reveals that the smartwatch market experienced incredible innovation and growth in 2014; this doubled the shipment from 2.3 million units in 2013 to 5.0 million units in 2014. In 2015 the smartwatch shipment will increase manifold with 24.4 million units worldwide.

While the defining moment of smartwatches is pegged on the announcement of the Apple Watch last year, research analysts believe that 2015 will be its year of growth. Already, a number of well-known industry players have announced their smartwatches including Samsung, Sony, Motorola and LG. Google went a step further and introduced its Android Wear operating system for smart watches. This year, a few smartwatches are yet to be released, with a few already poised in users’ sights as must-watch wearables.

LG Android Wear

The South Korean company is said to be working on its next-generation Android smartwatch codenamed “LG Nemo.” Dubbed to sport the highest pixel resolution in the world, it will boast a high screen resolution of 480 x 480 pixels, a feature currently unheard of for smartwatches.

The new Moto 360

Motorola is expected to announce the next generation of its premium Moto 360, which is reportedly coming in two sizes. Releasing two variants with model numbers Moto 360S and Moto 360L will help Motorola to address the criticism faced by the first generation of Moto 360 for being large and heavy. The devices will sport a 270 mAh and 375 mAh battery respectively.

Samsung Gear A

Samsung is also expected to launch its Gear A smart watches in the IFA at Berlin in September. Internally codenamed as ‘Project Orbis,’ the Gear A smartwatch runs a version of Tizen platform. SamMobile reported that the device will be launched in three variants.

Huawei Watch

Huawei officially announced its smartwatch at the Mobile World Congress 2015. It promises to be one of the most beautiful Android Wear devices which is almost ready to be released in the U.S. The Huawei Watch will pack a 1.4-inch 400 x 400-pixel round AMOLED display (286 pixels per inch) and a 10.000:1 high contrast ratio.

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