Android Wear market share surpassed by Samsung's Tizen, Apple Watch still king of the hill

by Luis D.

May 12, 2017, 6:05 AM

Pictured - the Gear S3 frontier

In a surprising twist, Samsung's Tizen OS for wearables – prominently featured in the Gear S3 and S2 smartwatches – has surpassed Android Wear's market share. This has been revealed by a Strategy Analytics report where global smartwatch shipments and share for the past four years have been tracked. Granted, Tizen (19%) only has a 1% headway over Android Wear (18%), but it is what it is.

While Samsung smartwatches are clearly selling better than any Android Wear ones, Apple has more than half of the market for itself with a 57% share for watchOS, exclusive to the Apple Watch. Not bad for a device that left many scratching their heads whether getting it is really worth it. Of course, the Apple Watch is a more than decent smartwatch, and is being marketed the way Apple markets things, so no surprises here.

With several Android Wear 2.0 watches coming from brands like Hugo Boss, Movado, Tommy Hilfiger and Fossil, the platform ought to enjoy renewed interest in the second half of the year. However, Samsung could out a successor to the Gear S3 that looks attractive and could be priced more fairly than these brands' premium products. Although Google enjoy steady growth in activations and app downloads related to Android Wear each year, 2017 won't be easy for its wearable pursuits.

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source: Tizen Experts via Wearable

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13 Comments

1. surethom

Posts: 1755; Member since: Mar 04, 2009

Until android wear watches become thinner & not massive the mainstream won't want one.

posted on May 12, 2017, 6:10 AM 3

2. Nopers unregistered

Exactly. Point proven with the ultra thin and not massive gear S3 and gear S3 frontier..... right?

posted on May 12, 2017, 6:15 AM 7

6. sgodsell

Posts: 7624; Member since: Mar 16, 2013

There are lots of Android wear smart watches thinner than the Gear S3 12.9 mm thickness, the LG watch style is only 10.8 mm. There is over 30 different Android Wear watches from lots of different OEMs to choose from. Right now nobody beats Android Wear in terms of different styles, shapes, brand names involved, and sizes. Some are thinner, and some not so thin. It all comes down to what you are looking for in a smart watch. The problem I find with Android Wear is some of the OEMs think their brand name has a lot of weight when it comes to their watches. For instance I like Fossil watches. But their smart watches don't have a heart rate monitor or GPS. They think that people are going to take off their smart watch and use a different one for working out. If they only had a GPS, then I would just leave it on. Especially for when I go on bike rides. I get board of the same routes. Don't get me wrong I like Fossil smart watches. They can even store lots of music, and play to Bluetooth speakers or headphones. To me a great smart watch is like a Swiss army knife. It has all these features that you might or might not use. But if it has them, then you could use that feature without going to a different watch. The other thing is Samsung pay works in my country (Canada). Android pay has yet to arrive.

posted on May 12, 2017, 8:50 AM 0

4. bucknassty

Posts: 1405; Member since: Mar 24, 2017

Yes! this is where they should be focusing on thin-ness... not on phones

posted on May 12, 2017, 6:55 AM 0

3. galaxy-gear

Posts: 119; Member since: Sep 30, 2016

Tizen proved its worth it's better than android wear.

posted on May 12, 2017, 6:35 AM 4

12. QWIKSTRIKE

Posts: 1461; Member since: Mar 09, 2010

I wanted the OG Huawei watch to be updated with GPS, but the updated end result was horrendous so I bought a gear S3. I am happy with this watch today I am going on 4 days of continuous battery life. The new updates Samsung health works very well and although their are not tons of apps there are enough to get all kinds of workouts going. I hope the Gear S4 continues down the same path as the Gear S3 with improvements. I have a 10 year old Fossil sports watch as big as My gear S3 so size is no issue for me. Like anything nothing will satisfy everyone, but the Gear S3 will satisfy most. I bought this watch band to go with it, and now I don't have sweaty wrist from the 316 Stainless wrist band as I did with the stock band. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01NBVZTPQ/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

posted on May 13, 2017, 4:50 PM 0

5. keithtae

Posts: 564; Member since: Mar 25, 2015

My gear s2 is still kicking arse, while my huawei watch is lagging the s**t out of me

posted on May 12, 2017, 8:13 AM 2

8. nikhil23

Posts: 506; Member since: Dec 07, 2016

yeah. My android wear used to lag too. Fun stuff is I tease my gf's apple watch with my gear s3. Apple watch has high touch sensitivity. The difference is substantial

posted on May 12, 2017, 9:49 AM 0

9. tedkord

Posts: 17514; Member since: Jun 17, 2009

Never tried the Huawei watch, but my Gear S2 is still running strong.

posted on May 12, 2017, 10:45 AM 0

11. aegislash

Posts: 1538; Member since: Jan 27, 2015

Decided on a Huawei Watch to replace my original Moto 360, after seeing how horrifyingly ugly the Huawei Watch 2 and Watch 2 Classic are... The Android Wear UI definitely has hiccups here and there, whereas my Gear S2 Classic continues to fly through the various apps and menus without even the slightest stutter.

posted on May 12, 2017, 3:14 PM 0

7. nikhil23

I have a moto 360 and gear s3. I have to charge moto 360 every day while s3 can get me a little over 4 days. I like android wear 2.0 (too bad my watch doesn't support it). I like the features of gear s3 over android wear(S health is simply better than google fit). If they created a gear s3 with android wear 2.0 and have all the features of gear s3, it would be awesome

posted on May 12, 2017, 9:47 AM 1

10. darkkjedii

Posts: 31780; Member since: Feb 05, 2011

The Gear S3, is by far the best Smart watch I've owned. My Gear S, Gear Fit2, Gear S2, Apple Watch, and Series One Apple Watch all pale in comparison.