With the new Apple Watch due for release this year, analysts and the internet are desperate to predict the changes the device from Cupertino, CA will bring forth to the smartwatch market in its current state. Great, innovative smartwatches have already been on the market for some time from the likes of Motorola, Samsung, LG, and many more. While there have been several criticisms surrounding the Apple Watch regarding its battery life and spinning dial interface, it will most definitely bring huge changes to the industry. Just weeks ago it was reported that Apple ordered between 5 and 6 million units of their smartwatch for their initial launch.
A research and consulting firm, Strategy Analytics released a full report on the Apple Watch and their predicted forecast of the watch’s sales performance. Their director, Cliff Raskind was quoted stating, “We forecast total global smartwatch shipments to grow 511 percent from 4.6 million units in 2014 to 28.1 million units in 2015. Most of the smartwatch growth will come from the new Apple Watch, which we forecast to ship 15.4 million units worldwide in 2015. Apple will quickly become the world’s number one smartwatch vendor and capture 55 percent global market share this year.” Alright so those are some pretty substantial claims. Only time will truly tell how successful the device is at capturing the market by these huge margins, however, it is quite probable that existing iPhone owners will result in a large adoption rate.
What does this mean for Android Wear and the smartwatches compatible with Google’s mobile operating system? As when Apple enters any device market for the first time, we will likely see a huge explosion in innovation. Sure, at first the Apple Watch may see large adoption, but this will only put manufacturers of Android Wear hard at work to release the next generation of smartwatches. Perhaps we will see watches with substantially improved battery life, form factors and much more hit the market. Already now at this year’s MWC we saw many new innovations, one of which was a new smartwatch from Huawei. A brand new, arguably stylish smartwatch will ship in several materials will feature a sapphire crystal display with a stainless steel body. To sum this all up, 2015 and beyond is sure to bring great things to Android Wear smartwatches. To those that have been hesitant to adopt the first series of Android Wear devices, this could be the year worth getting one.