Adidas, Apple, Fitbit identified as central to Wearable Fitness

A new global forecast for Wearable Fitness Technologies names Adidas, Apple and Fitbit as the brands to watch between 2016 and 2022.

Research and Markets is predicting that the Wearable Fitness tech sector will grow by an average of 13.7% per year between 2016 and 2022, by which time it'll be worth $12.44bn USD.

Factors contributing to the rise include the increasing availability of sophisticated gadgets, increasing popularity of wearable devices, increasing awareness about fitness, and a rise in disposable incomes.

Smartwatches will drive the trend, according to R&M's Wearable Fitness Technology Global Forecast to 2022, due to the presence of "many additional features" over standard fitness-tracking wristbands.

A dozen companies were named as major players in wearable fitness, with Garmin (Switzerland), Jawbone, Nike, Pebble and Qualcomm (all US), LG and Samsung (South Korea), Sony (Japan) and Xiaomi (China) namechecked alongside Adidas (Germany), Apple and Fitbit (US).

Retail prices are expected to fall over the eight-year period, good news for consumers in the short term, but something that could make it difficult for newer companies to get into wearable fitness, R&M noted.