Pebble & Android Wear Poised to Dominate Holiday Smart Watch Sales - Where's Apple?
Next month, the smart watch market is shifting into high gear.
And Pebble and Android Wear are leading the charge.
So far, Pebble has led the smart watch market in terms of units sold. And their latest Pebble Steel has been a clear hit with their fans.
But Google is pulling out the big guns, now. With the recent release of the Samsung Gear Live and LG’s new G Watch, Android Wear developers have been releasing apps at a furious pace. And with the hot-hot-hot Moto 360 coming out any day now, it appears that we can expect this pace to increase from here.
Of course, Wear developers are conveniently ignoring the fact that battery life for Wear devices is abysmal right now. But let’s not quibble.
And the Android Wear pipeline keeps growing. Four more smart watches are coming to market in the next 4 weeks, and at least three of them will be based on Android Wear:
Check out our recently-updated Coming Soon page to get the latest details on these 4 new watches.
We say “at least three” because we don’t know whether the Samsung Gear Solo, Samsung’s new standalone watch phone, will be based on Tizen or Android Wear. We’re betting that Tizen will be the choice for this one due to that nagging battery life issue.
Most of the rumors say that Apple will release their long-awaited iWatch this November. Others say the iWatch has been delayed into 2015.
Whatever. You know how reliable Apple rumors are. No one really knows.
Personally, we think Samsung, Google and Apple are headed for a marketing smackdown this holiday season – and a healthy spend on TV ads could drive demand (and hype) through the roof for smart watches.
What’s A Watch Geek To Do?
The big question for you, Mr. early adopter, is: with so much innovation coming online this Fall, should you wait – or buy what works now?
As for me, I still love my Pebble. I give Pebble big credit for continuing to innovate (quietly). Their new app store is the bomb, and their alerts and notifications continue to improve with each month. Sure, the plastic gets scratched and that pale black and white display is starting to look outdated. But dang, this little thing is so convenient. And fun.
On the other hand, all those new Android Wear apps – and the lure of a color touch screen - are starting to look pretty good right now. And we all know a LOT more apps are coming.
It sure would be great to see Samsung, Apple and Google go at it this Christmas season. The smart watch market would get a nice fat kick in the innovation rear, I think.