2014 was a banner year for wearables. From relative obscurity, the segment firmly established itself as one of the biggest buzzwords and one of if not the most exciting areas in consumer electronics. Despite the hype and the promise, sales of smartwatches did not explode the way many had predicted. The overall market grew 82% year over year but that still only translated to 6.8 million smartwatches being sold last year according to Smartwatch Group.
Looking at this slightly differently, the smartwatch market in 2014 was worth only US$1.291 billion. In comparsion, the computer sector which has been slumping for years now was worth about US$304 billion according to Gartner.
“This growth rate is less than what most industry experts expected. The early announcement of the Apple Watch in September hurt sales of competitive products, and there was no available product offering from Apple,” says Pascal Koenig, Managing Partner of Smartwatch Group. “While offerings in the wellness and sports market from companies like Garmin, Fitbit, Withings and Polar are based on solid use cases, the consumer market has not yet picked up. So far, the mobile phone companies around Google’s operating system Android Wear have not been able to deliver on their promise.”
The report also identified that 89 companies from 18 countries offered smartwatches in 2014. That number is expected to jump significantly this year with at least an additional 140 companies currently developing new models.
Looking at units shipped by manufacturer, Samsung dominated with 1.2 million units shipped. Pebble took second place with 700,000 shipments with Fitbit taking third thanks to the Force and Charge. Sony and Motorola completed the top five. LG, Garmin, Withings, Polar and ASUS filled out the rest of the top 10 smartwatch companies.
Smartwatch Group expects that the launch of the Apple Watch could have the halo effect needed for smartwatches to establish themselves as a device to have in the eyes of consumers: “As several times in the past, it comes down to Apple to reach a breakthrough in the consumer market.”
With the Apple Watch about to launch, smartwatch shipments could jump to US$8.7 billion this year.
Source : Smartwatch Group