Thanks to a new study conducted by DreamChrono, we’ve have a clear picture of the SmartWatch market and how it was broken down between different companies in 2013. That might be all too familiar to Sony enthusiasts, despite being one of the first tech giants to get into the race and having released their second generation version, dubbed Sony SmartWatch 2 at the time when its rivals like Samsung were only releasing their first generation SmartWatch, Sony was only able to take a 7% marketshare in 2013. From the $711 million total market worth in 2013, Sony was only responsible for $50 million with Samsung holding the lion’s share at 34%.
Let’s talk more details, including an amazing chart that really gives you a breakdown of the SmartWatch market of 2013.
With a 34% marketshare, Samsung sold around 800,000 SmartWatches while Sony sold 250,000. This also means Samsung was able to do $240 million in the category. Other major players in the market include Nike, Fitbit, and Pebble which all had larger shares of the market than Sony. The breakdown is as follows:
- Samsung – 34%
- Other – 18%
- Nike – 9%
- Fitbit – 8%
- Garmin – 8%
- Sony – 7%
- Pebble – 6%
- Shanda – 4%
- Mio Alpha – 3%
- Yingqu – 2%
- Casio – 1%
Commanding only a 7% marketshare should be a worrying sign for Sony who has a considerable larger network and reach than Pebble, the company who was formed out of Kickstarter with 6% marketshare. The SmartWatch market is expected to increase dramatically in the coming years with forecasts placing its cap around $15 billion by 2015, up from $711 million in 2013. In total, 3 million SmartWatches were shipped in 2013, up from 300k in the year prior.
With a second generation SmartWatch that’s more refined than its Samsung counterpart, Sony only has a small window to capitalize on the market. While far later to the party than Sony, Samsung has been aggressive with their marketing of the SmartWatch, unlike Sony who has till now simply released the product in hopes of it gaining traction on its phone. Analysts believe that come this Fall, Apple will enter the SmartWatch category with the iWatch which is expected to leapfrog Samsung and Sony in marketshare. In the past, Sony has been the first to categories like mirrorless cameras like the NEX, only to see competitors (Nikon) come into the market with more aggressive advertising campaigns and pull ahead of Sony.
Now some more interesting statistics about the SmartWatch market.
Discuss:
What must Sony do to gain traction in the SmartWatch market?
[Via DreamChrono]