Last year was the ‘year of’ a number of things. One of those was certainly the ‘year of the smartwatch’. With so many companies either announcing their intentions to or actually unveiling their offering. In fact, this year already looks set to be very much another year of the smartwatch with the likes of Huawei and Apple already announcing their first steps into the new realm. That said, even with last year being a big year for smartwatches (and wearables in general), it was difficult to gauge if the year was the year such tech became mainstream. Many report have been suggesting smartwatches are a niche product and have yet to hit the big time. This was further fuelled by a report which emerged not long ago suggesting Android Wear devices ‘only’ managed to shift 720,000 units in 2014.
A new report which has now come to light from Statista, reveals when you take Android Wear out of the equation the number of smartwatches shipped last year was actually quite high. The reports suggests that in total 6.8 million smartwatches were sold. What is probably of more interest is that of the various manufacturers, Samsung seems to have been crowned king of the smartwatch for last year. The report goes on to state that of the total 6.8 million units, Samsung alone accounted for 1.2 million of them. Which coincides with another recent report which suggested the same number. That is in stark contrast to the second biggest manufacturer, Pebble, who only managed to shift 700,000. Not to mention that the report specifically name-drops Samsung’s Gear line of smartwatches as those which occupied 17.65% of the overall market share.
Other memorable mentions include Sony who managed to shift 550,000 and Lenovo who managed to shift 500,00. It is worth remembering that Lenovo presumably reflects the highly popular Moto 360 smartwatch, since Lenovo are now the owners of Motorola. Following down the list, LG accounted for 420,000 while Asus managed 120,000 units in 2014. It won’t come as a big surprise to some people that Samsung do rank top, as they offer a wider selection of smartwatches then most other companies. That aside though, its collective sales cannot be argued with and does show that Samsung are quickly becoming the market leaders in this new and emerging market, as they have done in other markets before. How these companies will fare in 2015 and with the introduction of the Apple and Huawei options remains to be seen for now. What do you think of the figures? Let us know.