Provisioning reliable wireless connectivity for medical and consumer wearable designs

As the market for trendy smartphones heads towards maturity, the next consumer “must have” appears to be a wearable device. Often designed for use with a smartphone, using its short and long-range gateway connectivity capabilities to cloud-based applications, the demand for wearables is forecast to grow significantly. The term wearable is a broad classification that comprises smartwatches, Bluetooth headsets, wristbands, chest straps, sports watches, smart garments and head mounted displays such as those used for gaming. According to a recent report from Gartner (1), 274.6 million wearable devices will be sold in 2016, an 18.4% increase from 2015, and will generate revenue of $28.7 billion, of which $11.5 billion will be from smartwatches. Of the forecast 274.6 million devices to be sold in 2016 the largest unit sales are forecast as Bluetooth headsets (128.5 m), smartwatches (50.4 m) and wristbands (35 m). While Apple has set the smartwatch benchmark with the launch of its Apple Watch, there is also an increasingly strong growth from fitness wearables such as sports watches, fitness bands, and vital signs monitors that are used by runners, cyclists and water sports enthusiasts.

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