But the ITC analyst said only about 370,000 smartwatches were sold in 2014, with Samsung the market leader. Telsyte forecasts suggest, however, that the market will grow by at least 50 percent this year, due to the launch of the Apple Watch.
According to Telsyte’s Australian Smartphone & Wearable Devices Market Study 2015, the smartwatch market should grow by at least 50 percent in 2015, following the arrival of the Apple gadget.
Telsyte points out that watch jewellery is already a mature market with around 40 percent (or more than 7 million) of Australians (age 16 and above) wearing a watch almost every day. Notwithstanding the challenges, smartwatches have the potential to disrupt the traditional market as people consider wearable devices an extension to the smartphone and apps they use for fitness and communications.
Telsyte MD Foad Fadaghi says smartwatches will become more appealing to consumers as new, stylish and highly featured devices enter the market, with the 25- to 44 year-old age group representing the best sales opportunity in 2015.
“There is a lot of anticipation for the Apple smartwatch and our research indicates half of all smart fitness band users are looking to upgrade to a smartwatch, creating a potentially vibrant new product category” Fadaghi says.
Telsyte figures show that more than 800,000 smart wristbands, such as those made by Fitbit and Garmin, were sold in 2014. The researcher found the top three applications people want from a smartwatch include checking the time and date; using it as an alarm clock; and reading messages, including e-mail.
The figures for smartphones have not held up as well as Telsyte had expected. There were about 16.8 million smartphone users in Australia at the end of December, with sales of just below 5 million units in the second half of 2014.
This was around 10 percent less than Telsyte had tipped for H2, despite very strong iPhone 6 sales.
The iPhone certainly gained market share in H2 2014, but the overall share trends are likely to change again, Telsyte says, as an Android-users’ upgrade cycle commences in early 2015.
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