Wearable Electronics in Japan

PROSPECTS

Smart wearables maintains strong growth as product offer increases in range and sophistication

Smart wearables saw continued strong volume growth in 2019, driven by new players entering the market and the increasing sophistication of the product offer. These factors have played a part in raising consumer awareness of smart wearables and convincing them of the potential benefits they offer.

Activity bands struggling to gain from rise in number of runners

Activity bands witnessed a continued steep decline in the final year of the review period. While such products have gained popularity amongst runners, manufacturers have increasingly been shifting to products with screens and a greater range of features.

Traditional watchmakers responding to rise of smart wearables

As smartphones increasingly undermine the functional role of traditional watches, traditional watch manufacturers are entering the analogue activity watches category. Citizen is amongst the major players to turn its attention to the development of so-called hybrid smart watches.

COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE

Apple Watch maintains innovation to support dominant position

Apple maintained its position as the dominant player in wearable electronics at the end of the review period, thanks to its strength in the smart wearables category. However, the company’s share declined in 2019 as a result of both increasing competition in smart wearables and Garmin Japan’s strong growth in the generally contracting activity wearables category.

Garmin builds on reputation in GPS devices

Garmin grew dynamically in wearable electronics in 2019 despite the overall contraction of its core category, activity wearables. Garmin has managed to attract Japan’s growing number of runners with a number of models offering strong reliability in their GPS feature.

Seiko Epson’s wearable electronics share falls as it focuses on analogue watches

Having seen its volume share peak in 2016, Seiko Epson Corp witnessed significant share erosion in the final three years of the review period. The company is focusing more strongly on analogue watches, reducing its activity in wearable electronics, a faster-changing category in which it has struggled to keep pace with IT giants such as Apple and Huawei.

Files are delivered directly into your account within a few minutes of purchase.