Apple Watch Claims More Than Half Of Global Smartwatch Shipments In 2015

The Apple Watch, the first and only wearable device so far from Apple, has captured 52 percent of all shipments of smartwatch devices around the world for the year 2015, according to estimations made by Juniper Research. This is quite an achievement for the iPhone maker’s smartwatch considering that the device was only released in the market in April of last year. But Juniper Research notes though that despite the success that the Apple Watch has enjoyed in the last few months, the smartwatch market in general has still not taken off.

Based on the information that Juniper Research has gathered, it is safe to say that the Apple Watch is clearly dominating the smartwatch arena. As for Android Wear smartwatches, it appears that they have their work cut out for them -- they only made up under 10 percent of all smartwatch shipments across the globe. The Gear S2, Samsung’s smartwatch offering that is powered by its own Tizen mobile operating system, is not doing particularly well despite garnering acclaim from critics and having been out on the market for about a couple of months now. 

Juniper Research was quick to highlight the notion that the smartwatch ecosystem appears to be growing fast, but the still limited use of wearable devices in general continue to be a factor in hindering the market from achieving mainstream status. Moreover, most of the global smartwatch shipments are spurred by affordable devices, particularly those that only offer basic functionalities revolving around displaying notifications and tracking health and fitness related data. But in other potential application areas of smartwatches, growth has been rather slow. Sure, there have been changes in design and some few added features, but overall, smartwatches in general just do not offer enough for mobile consumers in order for them to purchase more of the devices. 

Apple has been notoriously mum about the exact sales of its smartwatch, and industry watchers continue to offer only estimates regarding how well the Apple Watch is doing sales wise. Without any real benchmark, analysts often offer sales figures that vary wildly, from a couple of million units sold to some 6 million units sold. 

Any new technology is bound to undergo some challenges before truly taking off with the masses. Can the same be said for smartwatch devices? The smartwatch industry is certainly still in its infancy, even though smartwatches have been around for some time now. Whether these devices will become as popular as today’s smartphones and tablets is still unclear, but with Apple leading the way, it just might have a decent chance.