Fitness has always been a hot market, whether businesses and personalities are promoting videos, diet books, creams, supplements, advice, motivation, support, frozen meals, or other products and services. Now, the tech industry is about to take a bite out of the fitness market with GPS fitness watches. 

In a recent statement, ABI Research revealed that the market for GPS fitness watches is anticipated to total $1.07 billion in 2013.

Fitness fanatics who haven’t heard about these watches yet are certain to covet one this year (or so the research would indicate). Features vary from model to model, but some of the features include a weight tracker, a body fat percentage tracker, a training effect score, heart-based calorie counting, and other sport-specific data tracking, like tracking laps in the swimming pool or tracking your cadence while walking or jogging.

With so many options to choose from, it can be difficult to sort out the best of the bunch. According to Gizmodo, the ‘forerunner’ is the Garmin (News - Alert) Forerunner 910XT. The Nike Plus GPS SportWatch, the Polar RCX5 and the Timex Ironman Global Trainer GPS with Heart Rate trail shortly behind it. 

ABI Research (News - Alert) adds that there are plenty of smaller players in the GPS fitness watch game, and that there is a “huge opportunity for smaller players to work with major application developers like Runkeeper, as a distribution channel.”

There are some who are waiting to find out whether or not the rumors about Apple (News - Alert) are true. The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal have indicated that Apple is internally experimenting with a watch-like device that features smartphone capabilities. ABI Research shrugged these rumors off as “unfounded;” however, it didspeculate that such a development would “no doubt significantly boost shipment forecasts in 2013.” 

Who will take the biggest bite out of this emerging market that is still yet to be seen, but it is certain that there is a great deal of opportunity in a market that is poised for definite expansion.