Wearables are already a huge part of the sports marketplace. Outdoor sports GPS devices are one of the latest entries into that market – and they’re big business.
In a recent research report entitled, “Global Outdoor Sports GPS Device Market,” analyst group Technavio forecast that the global outdoor sports GPS device market will grow at a healthy compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 13.21 percent in revenue from 2014 to 2019. To calculate the market size, Technavio analysts considered the revenue generated from global outdoor sports GPS devices across various regions. While the GPS sports-related market may have been launched by professional and team athletes, increasingly, it’s amateur sports participants who are buying the devices in order to take advantage of what sports analytics can offer.
One of the areas driving the growth of sports-related GPS is an emerging trend known as “augmented reality.” This technology – which can essentially merge a wearer’s real vision of the terrain around him with computerized information regarding location – is expected to raise GPS devices to a new dimension. (Google Glass can overlay computerized map information over the wearer’s vision.)
“This technology is used by vendors such as Garmin, which helps in projecting images in high resolution and allow users to manipulate 3D objects,” wrote Technavio analysts. “For instance, the technology helps the user to view the golf course from numerous standpoints. The player can easily identify the greens, water landscapes, bunkers, trees, and the unevenness in the ground that the golfer would not be able to perceive otherwise.”
So while handheld GPS sports devices may have largely peaked, in the coming years, increased usage of wearable devices for the purpose of sports analytics will drive growth in the market. Many solely GPS devices are also beginning to merge with biometrics functions allowing, for example, a runner to monitor her speed, her distance and her heart rate at the same time and with a single device.
In its report, Technavio noted that the outdoor sports GPS device market today is largely controlled by a relatively small handful of companies, including Garmin, Fitbit, Jawbone, Adidas, Bushnell, Apple, Nike, Sony, Samsung and Magellan Navigation. The report also noted that while the market enjoys growth, it will increasingly need to address issues of privacy and security of the data being collected by the devices.
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