Fitbit, the San Francisco-based wearable technology company, has seen its stock rise incredibly quickly since it’s market debut last Thursday – first a 48 percent gain, then a 9.5 percent rise the following day, and then another huge 20 percent increase on Monday.

But what does this incredible success mean for other wearable tech companies? Has Fitbit established itself as the market’s dominating force? Or has it cleared the way for other wearable tech firms? 

Fitbit is worth $8 billion. That’s a lot of money. However, the global wearables market is set to grow by a staggering 173.3 percent this year. That means a total of 72 million devices will be shipped in 2015, compared to 26.4 million the previous year. And, with forecasts that, by 2015, shipment volume will pass the 155 million mark, 8 billion starts to look like a drop in the ocean.

Though some are still fairly unimpressed by many current wearables’ ability to function accurately, the figures prove that there is clearly a huge demand for the technology.

This has led a number of big companies, such as Google, who are reportedly looking to integrate the technology into our clothes, and Apple, with its famous Apple Watch, to take wearables very seriously indeed.

When companies of this magnitude (Microsoft, Intel, and Samsung are also looking into wearable tech) decide to pursue something, a huge amount of capital is injected into relevant research. The upshot: wearable tech is only going to get better.

And the possible uses of wearable tech are perhaps more extensive than you thought. We are fairly used to the idea of wearables measuring our health, and GoPro has proven that the wearables have a place in photography and videography.

But some are now claiming that tech can even make managers more effective. And even more whacky are some of the hypothetical applications people are coming up with.

It seems to us, then, that the wearables industry is just about to take off, and that Fitbit’s success is simply the first concrete evidence we have seen of this to date.

Do you think wearables are about to take off? And what wearable tech would you like to see?

Email us your thoughts.