• by Gavin O'Malley , Staff Writer @mp_gavin, March 2, 2017

Last quarter, wearable shipments reached an all-time high of 33.9 million units, according to the International Data Corporation (IDC).

That amounted to a 16.9% jump, year-over-year, the market research and advisory firm calculates.

As new vendors entered the market and previous champions refreshed their product lineups, shipments during all of 2016 grew 25%.

In total, nearly 102.4 million devices shipped last year, IDC estimates.

Early on, the market was bifurcated between smart wearables -- those capable of running third-party apps -- and “basic” wearables, which lack this ability.

Despite the additional features and tech available on smart wearables, however, their utility and necessity has been questionable at best, according to Ramon Llamas, research manager for IDC’s Wearables team.

In the past few months, two major platforms, WatchOS and Android Wear, have pivoted toward fitness and health applications.

“Like any technology market, the wearables market is changing,” Llamos explained. “Basic wearables started out as single-purpose devices tracking footsteps and are morphing into multi-purpose wearable devices, fusing together multiple health and fitness capabilities and smartphone notifications.”

“It’s enough to blur the lines against most smart wearables, to the point where first-generation smartwatches are no better than most fitness trackers,” Llamos added.

Beyond the top five vendors are new entrants including Fossil, along with their sub-brands -- and emerging companies like BBK and Li-Ning, which are tapping into niche segments of the wearables market.

Also of note, there is now more to wearables than just wrist-worn devices. Ear-worn devices – which IDC calls “hearables” -- surpassed 1% of all shipments for the first time in a quarter, and sensor-laden clothing accounted for more than 1% of the entire market in 2016.