While Apple’s highly anticipated Watch is set to get released in a few months time, it seems that elsewhere things are coming to a halt. According to a recent report from Canalys, just 722,000 Android Wear devices were sold in all of 2014, compared to 4.6 million fitness bands from companies like Fitbit.
Motorola, as expected, took the top spot with its highly-acclaimed Moto 360 smartwatch. LG’s G Watch R was also a success, selling much better than the previous G Watch. Companies like Sony and ASUS entered the market in this time period while Samsung failed to make a mark with its Android Wear-running Gear Live.
Things were comparatively better in the fitness band market where Samsung does have the overall lead. With time, competition is only getting stiffer, with several fitness bands now also showing notifications on your wrist for a significantly smaller price tag.
“Apple made the right decisions with its WatchKit software development kit to maximize battery life for the platform, and the Apple Watch will offer leading energy efficiency.
Android Wear will need to improve significantly in the future, and we believe it will do so.”
A thing worth noting that the industry overall is in its nascent stages right now. The sales figures for Pebble in 2013 were not exactly that terrific either and while Samsung released six different products in the last 14 months, none have been particularly successful.
Things might change with the arrival of the Apple Watch, just like like they did with the iPhone and iPad. Canalys predicts that around 16 million Apple smartwatches will be sold this year, which if true, will propel Apple to the top of the industry.
