As Android Wear comes up on its first birthday, research firm Canalys has released data on the number of devices that shipped during 2014. According to the company’s analysis of smartband purchases made last year, Android Wear devices accounted for just under 16 percent of all connected bands sold.
Unsurprisingly, given how disruptive the unveiling of the Moto 360 was, Motorola was the lead vendor for Android Wear watches. In that same vein, LG’s G Watch R sold much better than the original G Watch. Overall though, Canalys’s data seems to suggest that consumers are much more open to smartbands than actual watches — Android Wear sales were 720,000 for 2014, but smartband sales totalled 4.6 million units.
It’s too early to say why this is, whether it’s due to functionality, price, form factor, compatibility, or app ecosystems. Likely, it’s a combination of all of these factors and more. The smartband as a product category is still in its larval stages, so use-specific devices like the Fitbit are almost an easy sell because their purpose is clear. An Android Wear watch promises to improve your life by removing unnecessary interaction with your phone, but it’s too early to tell if consumers actually want that or not, or how much they want the watch to be able to do.
Of course, you can’t compare Android Wear watches and smartbands without accounting for the fact that Android Wear really only launched last summer with the Gear Live and the G Watch. Pebble’s smartwatch has been available since 2013 and has sold an almost comparable million units since launch.
The Apple Watch is expected to have a huge impact on the direction of the smartwatch market, and as Android Wear matures, we’ll see more OEMs figure out how they want their device to fit into the wearable landscape and users’ everyday lives. Until then, these kinds of numbers are great but a little premature if you’re looking at them as a representation of the success of Android Wear or even smartbands in general.
In November, Nielsen released a study that showed 3% of Canadians already own a smartwatch. Of those surveyed, 18% said they own a wearable and 20% said they planned to buy one. Almost 10% said they planned to buy a smartwatch in the next year.
[source]Canalys[/source]
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