By 2019, More Than Half A Billon Wearables Devices Will Be In Everyday Use

By the time 2019 hits, more than half a billion wearable devices will be in everyday use, according to Cisco's Visual Networking Index report.

The new report however, doesn't just include smartwatches but also wearable cameras, fitness trackers etc in 'wearable devices.' The report noted that around 578 million of these will be strapped onto people's bodies in just four years of time.

Cisco, in the report also underscored that the data from wearables will increase by a factor of 18 in these four years - most of which filtering through the users' smartphones.

"The number of mobile users is growing four times faster than the global population itself," Thomas Barnett, director of service provider thought leadership at Cisco, told eWEEK, noting that by 2019, 69 percent of the people in the world will be mobile device users.

Cisco predicts that there will continue to be a trend toward smart devices - i.e., over the next five years, smartphone use will continue to grow, accounting for 40 percent of the mobile devices in use.

The percentage for feature phones will drop from 61 percent last year to 27 percent in 2019, while M2M devices will quadruple to 28 percent. For service providers, the trend is significant: These smart devices leverage more data, which means more money coming into their coffers, eWeek added.