Android Wear stumbles out of the gate with just 720K units shipped in 2014
Though Google and its manufacturing partners hoped to get the jump on the Apple Watch with the debut of its own wearable platform last year, it didn't translate into blockbuster sales to consumers, according to a new study.
Canalys estimates that just 720,000 Android Wear devices were shipped last year, six months out of which the platform was available. Android Wear accounted for a fraction of the 4.6 million "smart wearable bands" shipped in 2014, the research firm said Wednesday.
Expectations are that Apple will find much greater success with the forthcoming Apple Watch, set to become available to consumers with a starting price of $350 in April.
To put the numbers in perspective, Apple's iPad took 28 days to reach sales of one million units when it debuted in 2010. The first iPhone took 74 days to achieve the one-million milestone in 2007.
The first Android Wear hardware launched in a limited capacity in late June of 2014, but failed to top a million units shipped in their first 187 days until the end of the year.
Startup Pebble, which runs its own proprietary operating system and hardware with a monochrome display, sold a million units from its launch in early 2013 until the end of 2014. Pebble shipped 300,000 of those units in its first year, with the remaining 700,000 shipping in 2014.
Expectations for the heavily hyped Apple Watch are much higher --?on Wednesday, investment firm J.P. Morgan told investors it expects Apple to sell 26.3 million units before the end of calendar 2015. Rumors from the supply chain are even more optimistic, suggesting Apple could build as many as 40 million units in the first year if demand calls for it.
Canalys, too, expects the Apple Watch to be a major boon for the wearable devices market, saying in its report on Wednesday that it will "dramatically grow" overall device sales once it becomes available.
"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," said Canalys analyst Daniel Matte. "Android Wear will need to improve significantly in the future, and we believe it will do so."
Thus far, the biggest name in the wearables market in Samsung, which has taken somewhat of a scattershot approach, releasing six devices in a span of 14 months. But Canalys also noted Wednesday that Samsung has "struggled to keep consumers engaged," and must do more to attract developers to its own Tizen platform for wearable devices.
Canalys defines smart wearable bands as multi-purpose devices that serve as accessories to smart devices. They are designed to be worn on the body and not carried, and are capable of running third-party computing applications.
Canalys estimates that just 720,000 Android Wear devices were shipped last year, six months out of which the platform was available. Android Wear accounted for a fraction of the 4.6 million "smart wearable bands" shipped in 2014, the research firm said Wednesday.
Expectations are that Apple will find much greater success with the forthcoming Apple Watch, set to become available to consumers with a starting price of $350 in April.
To put the numbers in perspective, Apple's iPad took 28 days to reach sales of one million units when it debuted in 2010. The first iPhone took 74 days to achieve the one-million milestone in 2007.
The first Android Wear hardware launched in a limited capacity in late June of 2014, but failed to top a million units shipped in their first 187 days until the end of the year.
Startup Pebble, which runs its own proprietary operating system and hardware with a monochrome display, sold a million units from its launch in early 2013 until the end of 2014. Pebble shipped 300,000 of those units in its first year, with the remaining 700,000 shipping in 2014.
Expectations for the heavily hyped Apple Watch are much higher --?on Wednesday, investment firm J.P. Morgan told investors it expects Apple to sell 26.3 million units before the end of calendar 2015. Rumors from the supply chain are even more optimistic, suggesting Apple could build as many as 40 million units in the first year if demand calls for it.
Canalys, too, expects the Apple Watch to be a major boon for the wearable devices market, saying in its report on Wednesday that it will "dramatically grow" overall device sales once it becomes available.
"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," said Canalys analyst Daniel Matte. "Android Wear will need to improve significantly in the future, and we believe it will do so."
Thus far, the biggest name in the wearables market in Samsung, which has taken somewhat of a scattershot approach, releasing six devices in a span of 14 months. But Canalys also noted Wednesday that Samsung has "struggled to keep consumers engaged," and must do more to attract developers to its own Tizen platform for wearable devices.
Canalys defines smart wearable bands as multi-purpose devices that serve as accessories to smart devices. They are designed to be worn on the body and not carried, and are capable of running third-party computing applications.
Comments
Android... Winning...
In short, they're still being outsold by the obsolete iPod line...
Maybe Samsung can squeeze out two more generations of Gear before the AppleWatch is shipped.
Good for Pebble, boo-hoo for Samsung.
People are just not that into wearables especially in the form of a watch with its tiny screen.
You should ad that line to your signature
The writing is on the wall....
The "writing is on the wall" for an Apple product, because some poorly designed non-Apple products sold like shit?
So I guess the "writing was on the wall" for the iPod? (mp3 players were never huge sellers before then)
So I guess the "writing was on the wall" for the iPhone? (touchscreen phones were a joke before then)
So I guess the "writing was on the wall" for the iPad? (tablets sold like this before then)
So I guess the "writing was on the wall" for the Macbook Air? (Ultrabooks sold like shit)
So I guess the "writing was on the wall" for Touch ID? (biometric on phones were unreliable and gimmicks)
So I guess the "writing was on the wall" for Apple Pay? (Phone based NFC payments had shit adoption)
I can go on and on.
It's amazing how people like you never get banned, if only for your consistently, grotesquely twisted and incomprehensible logic. Let me guess, if Android smartwatches had amazing sales, you would be saying that Apple "is too late to the party" and has "missed it's chance", or some other predictable horse-shit. Every single one of the above categories was "doomed to fail" by people like you. Sad that you feel zero shame for having learned nothing from Apple in the last 20 years, and that you are proud to publicize such extreme ignorance and petty thinking, on a daily basis.
The Apple Watch will probably outsell the combined, lifetime sales of every single other Android Smartwatch that has ever existed in the first day or two. Of course, instead of manning up and eating your words, you will move on to your next attack, as you have always done. I would gladly make a lifetime-ban bet with you on this, but I know you would never have the balls to accept it. All trolling, no real conviction. Incredibly, you've been wrong about everything you have ever posted about, and that will never change. That's quite the record.
Personally, I think it's more fair to add the fitness bands into that category the category ?Watch will sit in, since it will also do the fitness tracking. To me, that puts it on ground that more equal to when the iPhone launched, which makes Blackberry's more-advanced-than-dumb-phones-but-dumber-than-smartphones more inline with fitness trackers today. But how many watches are being sold per year? Could Apple do 1% of the global wrist-worn device market (i.e.: wristwatch, fitness tracker, and smart-watch, excluding jewelry and medical IDs)?
Prediction: the Apple watch will be compared and measured against all watches just to downplay its success.
"It's more expensive than a Seiko watch!"
"It's not as attractive as a Cartier watch!"
"It's a 'squircle'!"
Ultrabooks are Intel's branding of Wintel machines that use the SFF CULV processors, which weren't being produced before Apple requested them. I think you mean netbooks.
Some people are just all around pessimists. Does not matter the subject. They find the negative point of view religiously.
Prediction: the Apple watch will be compared and measured against all watches just to downplay its success.
No doubt.
Just like how anti-Apple lunatics and Fandroid trolls compare Apple iOS to every single Android manufacturer on earth combined, the delusional and intellectually challenged trolls will probably compare the Apple Watch to every watch, made by every single watch maker on the planet combined!
Apple sold how many million Apple Watches last quarter? Bah, that is not impressive at all, because when you add up the total number of watches sold in every country, made by every watch manufacturer (that is not Apple) combined, the figure pales in comparison.
It's all about marketshare, never mind that Apple makes more money than anybody else, while practically everybody else operates with pathetic, razor thin margins amid ever tumbling profits with some of them on the verge of bankruptcy, marketshare is what matters!
Also, Apple really needs to think about developing countries! If people who do not own a pair of shoes to their name are not wearing an Apple watch on their wrist, then Apple is doomed! Apple really needs to offer a budget version of the Apple watch, it's just too expensive! Perhaps Apple can do a campaign together with McDonalds, and give them out for free when you purchase a happy meal!
I had a patient yesterday who had an Android watch. It's the first one I've ever seen in the wild. I asked her about it. She liked it. She says she used it to check her messages and that it had substantially reduced the number of times she fished her watch out of the purse. I didn't give her a hard time about it. But I commented on it in the first place because it was so big and clunky looking. The Apple Watch won't be that clunky, I think... but I think it's gonna look too big until I get used to it. I won't be first in line for one, but I'll be watching with interest.
People are just not that into wearables especially in the form of a watch with its tiny screen.
No... people aren't into sh!t like AndroidWear and to a lesser extent, Pebbles. As has been shown time and time again, the industry will basically fling everything they have at the wall in the hopes something sticks, only to have Apple show everyone how it's done right.
Then... trolls like you will have a 2nd-comeback-line, change your tune and then somehow the entire industry "naturally evolved" to the next logical step... of course, after having everyone's R&D department at One Infinite Loop do the work for them.
Also, those Android watches look like complete garbage, and I'm sure that their functionality is equally as bad.
If I ever saw anybody wearing an Android watch, then I wouldn't even give them the time of day.
Ultrabooks are Intel's branding of Wintel machines that use the SFF CULV processors, which weren't being produced before Apple requested them. I think you mean netbooks.
Nah... they were ultrabooks. Intel purposely used the Macbook Air as a template of what they should look like. Shameless really.
Netbooks were already dying on the vine right around the time the 1st-gen MBA came out no? I still remember quite a few a$$hats on this forum years back clamoring how netbooks were going to overtake the industry, resulting the yet another "Apple is doomed" scenario.
Also, those Android watches look like complete garbage, and I'm sure that their functionality is equally as bad.
If I ever saw anybody wearing an Android watch, then I wouldn't even give them the time of day.
but...but...but... Android is....
aww.. forget it...