By Paul Ploumis (ScrapMonster Author)

December 14, 2015 07:45:45 AM

SPOKANE (Scrap Monster): The latest research survey carried out by the Consumer Technology Association (CTA) indicates that smart watches top the list of planned purchases by American youth during 2016.

The study titled ‘Consumers Journey to Purchase: Health and Fitness’ found that one out of three adults who plans to purchase any health and fitness technology prefers to buy a smart watch. The other items which reported high purchase preference were fitness-related apps (30 percent), dedicated wearable fitness activity trackers (27 percent), smart apparel (27 percent) and devices that track sleep patterns (23 percent).

According to CTA, the total sales revenue from health and fitness devices is likely to register a growth of 18% year-on-year to $1.8 billion in 2015. The sales revenue is likely to rise by another 10% in 2016.

The CTA survey shows that consumers believe that some form of health and fitness device helps to improve their lives and body fitness levels. Among survey participants, majority believe cite the intent to improve their health as the key reason for purchasing a health and fitness device.

The most important characteristic feature that American adults look for is tracking of calories burned. Nearly 61% rank this as the most desired characteristic in fitness devices, followed by heart rate (52 percent), steps taken (42 percent), distance (34 percent) and blood pressure (23 percent). For health users, the most desired characteristics are monitoring heart rate (58 percent), calories burned (48 percent), blood pressure (47 percent), steps taken (28 percent) and distance traveled (21 percent).

Consumer Technology Association (CTA), formerly Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), is the trade association representing the $285 billion U.S. consumer technology industry.