Two in five wrist-worn wearables now come with NFC

While health applications continue to be the main consumer adoption driver for wrist-worn wearables, support for mobile payments “is also starting to become a mainstay,” according to new research from IDC.

IDC’s definition of wrist-worn wearables includes smartwatches, basic watches and wristbands.

Shipments reached 34.2m units in total during the second quarter of 2019, up 28.8% year on year, with the top five companies — Xiaomi, Apple, Huawei, Fitbit and Samsung — collectively capturing 65.7% of the market.

“Roughly two out of five wrist-worn wearables now include NFC, and many more simply use QR codes to complete transactions,” the analysts say.

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