Welcome to The Wearable Weekly, your trusted guide to all things wearable tech. If you only have time to read one thing about wearables this week, this is it. Don’t forget to subscribe to The Wearable Weekly using the form below to make sure it hits your email inbox every week!
Industry Highlights
No watchOS 2 for you! One of the biggest stories this week in the wearable world was the surprise news that the Apple Watch did not get its much anticipated watchOS 2 update on the 16th as planned due to a “bug” discovered in the development of the operating system. Apple did not give any further details and has yet to reschedule the release.
The VR space and Toronto got a huge win this week as virtual reality won its first Emmy award. Toronto’s Secret Location won the Emmy for its work creating a virtual reality experience for popular TV show Sleepy Hollow in partnership with Fox.
Wearables walked the runway at New York Fashion week. Earlier in the week, Zac Posen debuted his LED dress made in partnership with Google’s Made with Code . Chromat and Intel partnered to show the Chromat Aeros Sports Bra, which senses your temperature level and then opens vents to cool you down. Chromat also showed a dress that changed shape based on the wearers stress and adrenaline levels.
Statistics & Forecast
By 2019, wearable worldwide shipments will reach 173.4 million units, resulting in a five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 22.9% according to the latest IDC report (Business Wire)
The global mixed reality market is estimated to be valued at USD 453.4 Million by 2020, at a CAGR of 75.2% between 2016 and 2020 (MarketsandMarkets)
Wearable electronics business to grow from $20 billion in 2015 to almost $70 billion in 2025, with healthcare as its dominant sector (IDTechEx)
Visiongain has assessed that the value of the global wearables technology market in 2015 will reach $16.1B (PR Newswire)
The global wearable gaming market will reach $19 billion by 2020, with a 67% market share for hardware and 33% for software (PR Newswire)
Virtual Reality to be worth $7 Billion by 2020 says Deutsche Bank (Bidness)
New report forecasts that the smartwatch market in Japan is to grow at a CAGR of 120.60% led by Casio, Samsung, and Sony (Business Wire)
93% of IT and business decisions makers surveyed indicated that their organizations are already using or actively exploring wearables according to a survey by APX Labs (EE Times)
VR headset shipments to reach 30 million by 2020 says Juniper (Juniper)
41% of adults interested in giving virtual reality a try says survey from Google Consumer Surveys (Ars Technica)
Device Announcements
Canon showed off an early “secret” VR prototype at its 2015 Expo this week (Popular Science)
Timex launching analog smartwatch Metropolitan+ (Ars Technica)
Huawei smartwatch goes on sale (MobileSyrup)
Best Buy Canada now accepting pre-orders for Samsung S2 smartwatch (TechRadar)
Rebecca Minkoff debuted charging wallet and Apple Watch bands at New York Fashion Week (Mashable)
UK department store John Lewis to carry Apple Watch (TNW)
Recon Instruments lowers the price of its smartglasses Jet (Bicycle Retailer)
Funding, Crowdfunding, and M&A
Moff raises $1.3M from Japanese video game giant Bandai Namco Entertainment, Orso, and TomyK (MobiHealthNews)
Wearable sensor company Valencell raises $2.6M (Business Journal)
Major Milestones
Virtual reality wins its first Emmy with Secret Location’s “Sleepy Hollow” (The Verge)
Sony’s Project Morpheus gets official name of “PlayStation VR” (WSJ)
AltSpaceVR announces Samsung Gear support (The Verge)
Bang & Olufsen updates app to support Apple Watch (Luxury Daily)
Lumoid offers $45 Android Wear rental bundle (Android Headlines)
ABC News brings virtual reality to its reporting (Variety)
Ford launches smartwatch apps for its electric and hybrid cars (The Verge)
Moto Body app now in the Google Play store (Android Police)
Technogym launches world’s first Google Glass controlled treadmill (BusinessWire)
Rumours
Google has formed a new wearable group under “Project Aura” (MobileSyrup)
China’s Elephone reportedly working on an Android Wear smartwatch (9to5 Google)
Moov now hits FCC, suggest its shipping soon (Liliputing)
Subscribe to The Wearable Weekly
Don’t forget to subscribe to The Wearable Weekly using the form below to make sure it hits your email inbox every week!