Page 78 - Pay Magazine s2014

digital money
Who Are You Wearing?
Wearables will reach a new mile- stone this year, as 15 million to 20 million consumers are expected to snap up the multifunction Apple Watch, which enables payments via Apple Pay. (See statistics on page 74.)
Corporations and investors are bullish on the growth potential for wearable technology, with sales of wrist-based wearables set to soar from 4.6 million units sold in 2014 to 28.1 million fore- cast to sell this year, according to
Strategy Analytics. The overall wearables market—of which wearable payments technology
is a subset—is predicted to grow even faster over the next several years. Gemalto estimates the wear- ables market as a whole is now worth $22.7 billion and will reach $173.3 billion by 2020.
Thousands of developers world- wide are said to be creating apps to enhance a broad range of consumer activities via smart- watches for the iOS and Android
platforms, with heavy concentra- tion on programs and apps re- lated to fitness, travel, gaming, virtual reality and entertainment, financial services and payments.
Battling Behavior
The possibilities are intriguing, but the number of wearables embedded with payments fea- tures is still relatively low, and usage is not likely to take off quickly, some observers suggest. Entrenched consumer habits die hard, particularly with payments,
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