Global smartglasses sales will grow +63% in 2016.  While consumers struggle to accept smartglasses as everyday tech, the enterprise market remains promising for phase 1 with market leader Vuzix working to steadily increase corporate partnerships.  We expect technology heavyweights -- such as Epson, Samsung, Sony, Microsoft, Google and others -- to expand the market steadily in coming years. North America, Western Europe, China and developed Asia will be the leading territories to target for volume and value. Over 1 billion consumers and workers worldwide today wear spectacles, contact lenses, goggles or sunglasses -- simply converting, say, 10%, of that total to computerized smartglasses will mean an addressable market well into the tens of millions. Additionally,  patents filed by Samsung, Sony and others for smart contact lenses indicate forward looking industry focus on the category.

The global smartglasses market is on life-support, but it is NOT dead. "Phase one" for the industry, from 2012 to 2016, has unquestionably been a flop, most notably on the consumer side. But this is NOT unusual for first-generation gadgets, because most new products fail as consumers struggle to understand or afford them. The ball is now firmly in the court of the smartglasses industry to bounce back in "phase two" during 2017 to 2022. The wearables industry must computerize glasses, goggles and sunglasses -- and give consumers or businesses compelling reasons and benefits to upgrade from their old "analog" spectacles to modern "digital" smartglasses. It will not be easy, but it is certainly doable.