Canalys: Android Wear is off to a walking start w/ 720,000 devices shipped in 2014

The latest numbers from Canalys suggest that Android Wear is definitely not taking off as fast as many would have hoped, and that devices running Google’s smartwatch operating system haven’t exactly sold like hotcakes. Over the entirety of 2014, somewhere in the realm of just over 720,000 Android Wear device were grabbed up by consumers, making up almost 1/6 of the total 4.6 million smart wearable bands shipped.

According to the firm’s report:

Over 720,000 Android Wear devices shipped in 2014 out of a total of 4.6 million smart wearable bands. Though the Moto 360 remained supply constrained through Q4, Motorola was the clear leader among Android Wear vendors. LG’s round G Watch R performed significantly better than its original G Watch, while Asus and Sony entered the market with their own Android Wear devices. 

Wearable smart bands made for fitness and movement tracking like those from FitBit and the Xiaomi’s super-cheap Mi Band seem to be leading the market in terms of volume, with the latter company selling over 1 million units of its wearable that launched in July of 2014.

“Android Wear is not very good,” Daniel Matte, a research analyst at Canalys, told The Wall Street Journal. And while that may seem like a harsh and generic statement, it’s definitely true to say that this first generation of Android Wear devices aren’t what they could be. Battery life could be better, and the app ecosystem definitely has room to grow. “We don’t have the third-party software ecosystem for smartwatches that we have for smartphones” said Matte.