Samsung announces 800K Galaxy Gear smartwatches shipped since launch [u]
Samsung on Tuesday said its Gear smartwatch has shipped 800,000 units since launching in September, putting a damper on rumors that claimed the Korean tech giant managed to sell only 50,000 pieces over the two-month span.
Editor's Note: Samsung has revised its statement to note 800,000 Galaxy Gear units have shipped, not necessarily sold. This is more in line with the company's other announced metrics, which do not disclose sales, but instead shipments.
According to a report from Reuters, Samsung is now touting the Galaxy Gear as the world's most popular smartwatch after hitting the 800,000 units shipped mark in November.
"It's the most sold wearable watch available in the market place...and we plan to expand its availability by expanding mobile devices that work with the Gear," Samsung said.
The number has supposedly exceeded even Samsung's expectations, leading the company to extend sales promotions during the lucrative holiday season.
Although critics and early reviewers panned the device for lacking features and being cumbersome to use, it appears Samsung's aggressive marketing paid off. At $300, the Gear is an expensive accessory, especially for a wearable device designed to operate in tandem with a smartphone or "phablet."
Some reviews found the Gear to be light on battery life, while others were disappointed by the lack of out-of-the-box support for Samsung's own smartphones. At launch, the Gear was only compatible with Samsung's Galaxy Note 3, though later updates added support for smartphones like the Galaxy S3, S4 and Note 2.
It was reported on Monday that Samsung only sold 50,000 Galaxy Gears since the device debuted, which came out to roughly 800 and 900 units per day.
Editor's Note: Samsung has revised its statement to note 800,000 Galaxy Gear units have shipped, not necessarily sold. This is more in line with the company's other announced metrics, which do not disclose sales, but instead shipments.
According to a report from Reuters, Samsung is now touting the Galaxy Gear as the world's most popular smartwatch after hitting the 800,000 units shipped mark in November.
"It's the most sold wearable watch available in the market place...and we plan to expand its availability by expanding mobile devices that work with the Gear," Samsung said.
The number has supposedly exceeded even Samsung's expectations, leading the company to extend sales promotions during the lucrative holiday season.
Although critics and early reviewers panned the device for lacking features and being cumbersome to use, it appears Samsung's aggressive marketing paid off. At $300, the Gear is an expensive accessory, especially for a wearable device designed to operate in tandem with a smartphone or "phablet."
Some reviews found the Gear to be light on battery life, while others were disappointed by the lack of out-of-the-box support for Samsung's own smartphones. At launch, the Gear was only compatible with Samsung's Galaxy Note 3, though later updates added support for smartphones like the Galaxy S3, S4 and Note 2.
It was reported on Monday that Samsung only sold 50,000 Galaxy Gears since the device debuted, which came out to roughly 800 and 900 units per day.
Comments
Your 50,000 watches sold post was slightly wrong. 800,000 watches. Slight discrepancy.
Your 50,000 watches sold post was slightly wrong. 800,000 watches. Slight discrepancy.
Kudos for running the story regardless? Could have ignored the report.
Pretty rare when 7 (+/-) comments says all that's needed. You guys are on point tonight. Loving the snark, no sarc.
One thing for sure, those Gear smartwatches are probably counted as Android activations to kick Android market share even higher in comparison to iOS. Chalk it up as another gazillion a day Android activations to show Android is just crushing Apple into oblivion.
Engadget reported it as 50,000 sold in South Korea. 800,000 is the global figure.
Also, Galaxy gear can't work with the vast majority of current Samsung products.
I can believe Samsung will sell this number of watches when compatible smartphones will be the majority but, until then, I fail to see how they could have sold such an overhyped, bad reviewed, incompatible and half-hearted attempt at wearable computing to a large target population%u2026
Certainly a typical case of shipped vs sold to end consumer.
And I think perhaps it's actually a good thing that Samsung have entered the market first, as then the design changes they make to ape Apple's designs will be obvious for all to see. As with the iPhone, we will be able to compare Samsung's "before Apple's iWatch" and "after Apple's iWatch" products. Should make the inevitable court case more straightforward...
One can but dream!
800k sold... total... I'm sure that figure is so high because at least 200k people gave it a try. It didn't perform as expected, so Samsung told them to exchange it for another one... 3 times.
Initial purchase plus 3 replacements each equals 800k.
Yep, that's it. Samsung is counting replacement models as models "sold".
Those 750k are not watches, but TV dongles loaded with movies.
Hahahahahahhaha!!!!!!!!
Something feels fishy about that number to me. I suppose when the gimmick early adopters wear off and people realise it's complete junk "sales" (shipped or sold? returns discounted from that number?) will dwindle considerably.
For me personally the only way I'd buy an iWatch is if it were an iPod replacement; that means tiny, seamless, iPod-style Ear Pods, but wireless and controlled via your wrist, via iWatch. That to me plus an M7 chip would make iWatch everything it needs to be. Health and iPhone satellite features would merely be bonus features for me.
Nobody seems to wanna keep track of how many were RETURNED. Lol
A 20% return rate means there's 160,000 that were returned, or, knowing Samsung, more. These things are going to show up on ebay soon, for $100.