Wearable technology has had a slow start when it comes to Smartwatches, but it looks like the market is growing and fast. With Android Wear hitting the scene later this year though, it begs the question as to who’s on top right now. Thanks to figures for Q1 2014, it looks like Samsung has dominated one more area of technology. Of course these are just figures from the first three months of the year, so things could change as we move even further into 2014. Still, to see Samsung collect so much of the Smartwatch market in those few months is surprising.
According to Strategy Analytics, Samsung shipping 500,000 smartwatches in the first three months of the year, giving them their 71% share of the market for Q1, this was an increase over the the 52.4% the company had for 2013 by selling over 1 Million smartwatches. Sony and Pebble took around 11% of the market in Q1 each, with Qualcomm selling just 10,000 units of the Toq watch, giving them 1.4% market share in Q1. These are figures for the first three months of the year and, as such we’re expecting Samsung’s domincance to continue with the Gear 2 line launched in April.
Samsung’s Gear 2 line and Gear Fit devices didn’t go on sale until April of this year, which means that Samsung managed to pick up this 71% during Q1 by selling their Galaxy Gear, the first smartwatch to come from Samsung. You might think that being compatible with just Samsung devices (and a handful at that) would hinder the Korean’s expansion, but this just goes to show how dominant Samsung has become. That, and how good a job some serious marketing can do for your bottom line. After all, Sony has been pretty quiet about their SmartWatch 2, itself a competent offering that works with any Android device. As for the Pebble, the device has enjoyed an underground success thanks to its Kickstarter campaign, but mainstream marketing is few and far between, which is where Samsung excels.