While the global smartphone market remains stagnant as groundbreaking foldable designs need more time to “stabilize” and 5G deployment is still too slow to make a difference, smartwatch sales continue to grow at an impressive pace around the world, pushing the entire wearable device industry forward.

But that’s mainly because significantly more smartwatches are forecasted to be shipped worldwide in the next few years than right now. Specifically, that 131.6 million score would surge from 91.8 million units in 2019, marking a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9.4 percent. And believe it or not, a different category of the wearable industry is expected to thrive at an even faster pace.

What’s perhaps more interesting to keep an eye on is how smartwatches and ear-worn devices will expand and evolve their feature sets and capabilities. According to the IDC, more than half of the former group will support standalone cellular connectivity in 2023 to break free from smartphones, while the latter category should focus more on allowing consumers to “cope with hearing loss” and other similarly life-improving use cases in addition to just tracking health info and interacting with a voice assistant.

Finally, it sounds like wristband sales have largely plateaued, with this year’s 54.2 million units merely expected to rise to 55 million in 2023. Shipments will especially decline in North America and Western Europe, where the vast majority of activity tracker owners are likely to upgrade to smartwatches.