Samsung is apparently ruling the smartwatch space, leading the pack with a 71 per cent market share, according to a report by research firm Strategy Analytics. The global market share of smartwatches has also experienced a year on year growth of 250 per cent, showing that the smartwatch space is definitely getting more and more attention from consumers.
In the first quarter of 2014, around 700,000 smartwatches were shipped from all manufacturers. Out of this, Samsung reportedly shipped 500,000 units and this doesn't include shipments of the latest Gear 2, Gear 2 Neo and Gear Fit as they went on sale in April.
Whilst dominating the smartphone market with around 30 per cent marketshare, Samsung is now also leading the smartwatch race. Competitors such as Sony and Pebble are neck and neck with each other, both having 11 per cent of the market.
"The market was driven heavily by Samsung and its Galaxy Gear model, which is outperforming all major rivals like Motorola and Pebble," wrote analyst Neil Mawston. It is also worth noting that the shipment numbers don't represent how many smartwatches have actually sold to end customers, but it still gives an indication of what retailers are expecting to sell.
A previous IDC report predicts that wearable shipments should triple this year, and could hit 112 million shipments by 2018. Will this surge be due to the many upcoming smartwatches such as the Moto 360 and LG G Watch, both running on Google's OS designed for wearable devices, Android Wear, set to join the market in the next few months? Certainly Samsung's wearables have enjoyed little serious retail competition so far from the aforementioned Sony and Pebble or Qualcomm's underpublicized Toq.
