Less Than 1m Android Wear Devices Shipped in 2014

  • Thursday, February 12th, 2015
  • Author: Tim Maytom
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Despite launching to much hype among the wearable industry in March 2014, only 720,000 devices running on Googles Android Wear OS shipped over the course of the year.

Motorolas round-faced Moto 360 fared the best, showing a clear lead over the nearest competitor, while LGs G Watch R, another round-faced design, also performed considerably better than its original model.

The figures come from a report by Canalys, which showed that 4.6m smart wearable bands were shipped in total over 2014. Pebble shipped 1m units from its 2013 launch through to the end of 2014, while Xiaomi saw over 1m of its low-priced Mi Band sold, with one day of sales seeing 103,000 purchased.

While continual software updates, a strengthening app ecosystem and price cuts in the fall managed to keep the overall market for wearables strong throughout 2014, many manufacturers were unable to establish a strong position for themselves.

“Samsung has launched six devices in just 14 months, on different platforms and still leads the smart band market,” said Chris Jones, vice president and principal analyst at Canalys. “But it has struggled to keep consumers engaged and must work hard to attract developers while it focuses on Tizen for its wearables.”

The launch of the Apple Watch in April is predicted to shake up the smartwatch and wearable market significantly, triggering a surge in uptake just like Apple Pay has energised the mobile wallet market.