Analysts Bullish on Smartwatches, Cautious on VR Breakthrough

Despite the feeling that the smartwatch hype has died down a bit following the slightly underwhelming launch of the Apple Watch last fall, analysts remain positive on the short-term outlook of smart wristwatches. Market research firm Gartner expects global smartwatch sales to more than double by 2017, quoting Apple’s marketing power as one of the keys to making connected watches a lifestyle item.

Often tagged as the big thing to watch in 2016, virtual reality headsets are also poised for significant growth in the next two years. However, industry experts remain cautious on the mainstream appeal of “head-mounted displays” such as Oculus Rift or the discontinued Google Glass project. While Gartner predicts global sales to increase from 0.14 million last year to more than 6 million units in 2017, that would still be far from mainstream adoption.