More Kenyans acquire smart wearables to track fitness

The uptake of smart wearables, including watches, has grown over the last two years, fuelled by increased health awareness.

This uptick appears to be driven mostly by health-conscious consumers who are looking to lose weight, training for a marathon, or trying to keep fit.

“Global industry growth on smart watches is at 15 percent. This is attributed to the changing lifestyles toward healthy living and the need to integrate this in everyday life,” said Evelyn Munene, Head of Product and Marketing at Samsung Electronics East Africa.

Smart wearables such as the smart watches, fitness trackers, blood pressure monitors, biosensors, electrocardiogram (ECG) monitors, and glucose meters are becoming a must-have amid the new wave of fitness enthusiasm.

This year, as the clock struck midnight on New Year’s, one of the most relatable and common goals was to keep fit. This saw the rise of the 10K steps challenge, especially in urban areas. Many Kenyans are aiming to not only hit the 10,000 steps a day but also outdo one another. Seeing their name at the top of the leader board has become a source of motivation.

“There is a consumer demand to integrate their health data into various apps. Within these apps, communities are formed and lifestyles are defined through coaching and accountability,” said Ms Munene.

Josephine Ogake, the chief executive officer at Tech Trendz said she has also noticed a significant rise in uptake of smart watches, which has had a positive impact on her sales.

“With the emergence of affordable smart watches, we have noticed more people buying them, especially for fitness tracking, increasing our sales by about five percent last year,” said Ms Ogake.

“Before last year, people would buy watches for notifications, but now we are seeing manufacturers design smart watches with fitness features.”

Ms Ogake said she has noticed more people buying smart watches than smartphones.

“From 2022, we have seen a rise in sales of smart watches, attributed to fitness and the pressure from peers to get into a healthy lifestyle.”
The surging popularity of fitness bands a couple of years ago helped consumers get accustomed to the idea of wearing a health monitoring device.

“Our customer base is looking to improve their overall health and wellbeing by tracking their daily steps, sleep patterns, heart rate, work-outs and many other health and wellness aspects,” said Ms Munene.

“We are seeing the highest interest in Samsung smart watches for fitness purposes, definitely from the women living in urban area’s especially Nairobi, Mombasa and Eldoret.”

Ms Ogake adds that, depending on the design and pricing of the watch, most of her customers are men.

“More men are buying them as opposed to women, mostly because of their design; these watches are typically masculine and bulky except for Apple watches, which are a favourite among the ladies,” added Ms Ogake.

Fitness tracking devices often recommend taking 10,000 steps a day.

Jeremy Oswald Owino, the founder of Pricepoint Limited, which sells electronics said that manufacturers are adding new features and functionalities, for example, Garmin’s watch for hikers, or Amazfit and Samsung’s ECGs.

As lifestyle diseases such as hypertension and diabetes become more prevalent, health-conscious Kenyans are turning to wearables to track and guide them in real-time.

The convenience of having health-tracking features integrated into a device that can be worn on the wrist has been a significant driver of smartwatch sales growth.

“There is increasing health and fitness awareness in Kenya, driven by an increasing interest in preventive health and wellness,” said Mr Owino.

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