“In yet another sign that the forthcoming Apple Watch is poised to shake up the wearables market in a big way, the average smartwatch sold in 2014 for just over half of the Apple Watch’s $349 starting price,” Neil Hughes reports for AppleInsider.
“Independent research company Smartwatch Group provided new data to AppleInsider on Wednesday estimating that just 6.8 million smartwatches were sold last year,” Hughes reports. “Those devices had an average price of $189, which is down 16 percent from the selling price of $225 seen in 2013.”
“‘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,'” Hughes reports. “[Pascal continued], ‘So far, the mobile phone companies around Google’s operating system Android Wear have not been able to deliver on their promise. As several times in the past, it comes down to Apple to reach a breakthrough in the consumer market.'”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: In late 2014, Apple masterfully froze the market. In 2015, they will take it.
That number is grossly inflated. It’s probly not a small fraction of that.
Agree; real quantity is 1 million Pebbles and 720 thousand Android Wear. — 1.72 million total to date.
All of the rest is smart bands and the like.
If just one-in-FORTY existing Apple customers with an iPhone (5 or later) buys an Apple Watch, Apple Watch sales easily exceeds that 6.8 million number. It will happen after the first weekend of sales, counting sales and the waiting list. It will happen with only the pre-orders, if Apple starts taking orders before release.
For such a personal fashion-first item, the wise shopper will evaluate the product with his own hands instead of pre-ordering.
@Paul Apple has been secretly working intensely on this product for 3 years. There are more than enough Apple loyalists to buy this sight-unseen based upon the information and previews already put out.
Samsung’s ‘next big thing’ basically turned out to be a high-pitched fart aimed at the faces of eager android fans. That’s about the best you can say about it.