Gadgets you can wear are in fashion at CES trade expo in Las Vegas

Las Vegas // Gadget consumers in the Arab Gulf region can look forward to a year of wearable technology as smartphone makers seek to up the ante.

The domain of wearable technology has moved away from health and fitness to more personal uses as is evident at this year’s International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. Big name technology firms such as Intel, Sony and LG have all this week launched wrist bands embedded with sensors intended to monitor daily activity to provide feedback on a user’s lifestyle.

Last year, Samsung and Qualcomm launched smart watches and Apple is expected to launch its version later this year. According to the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), the CES organisers, sales of smart watches should reach 1.5 million this year, of which 1 million will be sold in the United States.

“2014 is shaping up to be the year of wearables,” said Shawn DuBravac, the chief economist and senior director of research at CEA. “You’re seeing the internet experience as we know it change. It was a browser-based experience … But when we moved to mobile phones, it started to fundamentally shift what the internet was. We are going through that iteration again as we move to wearable connected devices.”

From the more expensive wearable gadgets – such as Google Glass, which costs $1500 – to smart watches that cost $150, the market is set for a big boost.

By 2018, Juniper Research expects more than 130 million wearable devices to be shipped worldwide. Shipments of smart glasses will reach 10 million by 2018, compared with just 87,000 last year.

“The business [wearable technology] is in its infancy. It is an area of growth in our market strategy and a huge opportunity – especially infotainment, which is driving the area,” said Dennis van Schie, the senior vice-president and head of sales and marketing at Sony Mobile Communications.

Sony has developed a waterproof chip called the Core, which includes a pedometer and monitors a user’s stress levels, heart rate, sleep patterns and media consumption. It works alongside the user’s smartphone through the LifeLog mobile app which creates a timeline of the user’s daily activity.

At this year’s CES there is a dedicated technology in fashion section with a jacket that adjusts its temperature according to its surroundings and a dress that lights up and changes colour depending on the wearer’s mood.

“The opportunity and potential for wearables is huge. The problem with wearables is that we don’t know what the configuration of the devices are and whether they will work. Some of them need to be tethered to a smartphone, some do not. There will be a lot of trial and error,” said Tom Morrod, the senior director for consumer electronics at IHS Electronics & Media.

But while wearable technology has been impressing the geeks and gadget lovers at this year’s show in Las Vegas, the emerging industry niche may still have some way to go before it enters the mainstream.

A survey from Cornerstone OnDemand found that four in ten workers polled in the US said they would not be willing to utilise wearable technology for their jobs.