Samsung sweeps 71 percent of smartwatch market with 500,000 units shipped in Q1

The wearables and smartwatch category is just about getting started and in the next two years, it’s expected to be a primary device category for most manufacturers, but one of them has a very clear lead right now. According to a report by Strategy Analytics, the worldwide leader in the smartwatch market is Samsung.   The world’s leading smartphone maker shipped about 500,000 units, giving it a great lead over many of its competitors with a 71 percent market share. The first quarter of 2014 saw a total of 700,000 units shipped   The numbers reported by Strategy Analytics is a significant increase over the company’s past performance in the smartwatch sector, where it managed to sell 1 million units in all of last year, with a market share of 52 percent. Samsung’s good performance can be attributed to the big marketing push behind their latest product, and launching it along side one of their best-selling smartphones, the Galaxy Note 3 and showing off other wearables such as the  Gear Fit.   The numbers taken into consideration account for only the sales and not the return rates, which were said to be a daunting 30 percent. The Galaxy Gear is expected to receive an upgrade to Tizen in the coming days which would put it on par with the Gear 2 and Gear 2 Neo as far as functionality is concerned. The first generation Gear smartwatch did not create enough buzz because of it high price tag and lack of compatible devices.   The brands trailing Samsung were Sony and Pebble both of which have sold 80,000 units collectively and have a market share of 11.4 percent. Motorola and Qualcomm also feature, selling 10,000 units and controlling 1.4 percent of the market.   The smartwatch market is small at the moment, as compared to smartphones, but is seeing a considerable growth in the high-end market. It should probably gain more pace in Q3 2014 with the introduction of new Android Wear devices and the Apple iWatch.