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The wearables device market is still in its infancy but it’s growing fast — with more than 17 million wearable bands forecast to ship this year, according to a new forecast by Canalys.

It reckons 2014 will be the year that wearables become a “key consumer technology,” and is predicting the smart band segment alone will reach 8 million annual shipments, growing to more than 23 million units by 2015 and over 45 million by 2017.

The analyst said shipments of both basic band wearables (aka the Fitbit) and smart band wearables (aka fully fledged smart watches that can run apps) grew dramatically in the second half of last year — with Fitbit pushing into the lead spot in the wearable band market, thanks to the affordable Flex and Force bands.

Fitbit dominated the market for “basic bands,” according to Canalys’ market estimates, with more than 50 percent market share in the second half of the year. The Jawbone UP came second, cutting itself around a fifth of the pie, followed by Nike with its Fuelband.

Meanwhile, at the emerging “smart band” end of the market — where an Apple iWatch would live should Cupertino ever unbox one — Samsung is the earlier leader, with its Galaxy Gear smart watch accounting for the majority of smart band shipments. Sony (actually a relative veteran of the smartwatch space) came second, taking almost a fifth of the market, closely followed by Pebble.

Samsung gained its early lead thanks to a “major marketing push,” said Canalys analyst Chris Jones, but he added that the company is likely to have to keep throwing money at the category to improve sell-through. The Gear did not review terribly well.

“Samsung launched the Galaxy Gear with a major marketing push that gained significant consumer interest. Shipments of the device took Samsung to the top of the smart band category, though disappointing sell-through will necessitate more promotional activity in coming months,” he noted in a statement.

Although basic band wearables have shipped in greater numbers to date than smart bands, having had the launch jump on their fancier rivals, the latter category is already growing faster, according to Canalys.

The analyst said smart bands are also likely to consume the functionality of their more basic category predecessor — which will presumably eat into basic bands’ market share in future, as smart band launches proliferate and shipments continue to grow.

Category convergence is therefore expected, in much the same way that the smartphone gobbled up and extended the basic functionalities of the feature phone. ”Increasingly, smart bands will adopt basic band features as the two categories converge,” added Jones.

As for what wearable bands are for, that’s set to expand, too. Canalys said it sees a huge opportunity for expansion into the medical and wellness segment, moving out from the current focus on a “relatively small market” addressing fitness enthusiasts. That expectation meshes with the rumours around Apple’s health focus for a forthcoming iWatch and iOS 8. 

“The wearable band market is really about the consumerization of health,” added Canalys Analyst Daniel Matte in a statement. “There will be exciting innovations that disrupt the medical industry this year, and with the increased awareness about personal wellbeing they will bring to users, having a computer on your wrist will become increasingly common.”

The analyst also expects Google to make changes to Android to improve its suitability for the smart band market. Google acquired smartwatch maker WIMM Labs back in 2012, so presumably has specific designs on the category — beyond letting its Android OEMs build their own wearable band offerings atop its platform.

“Android will be critical for developing the smart band app ecosystem, though significant changes will be required before it is suitable for wearable devices,” added Matte. “Canalys expects Android to enter the smart band market soon in a meaningful way. Battery life and quality of sensor data will be vital metrics of success for all smart bands.”

You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours — all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.

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You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours — all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.

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The PC market is fast shifting into a touchscreen world, and Apple is leading the charge. Some new numbers from the analysts at Canalys note that in Q4 of 2012, one in every three PCs shipped was actually a tablet, and that Apple’s iPad accounted for about half of them, or one in every six PCs shipped.

Canalys senior analyst Tim Coulling tells me that by “tablet,” Canalys means any computing device with screen of seven inches or more. By combining PC and tablet numbers — a logical thing to do, given that many are substituting tablet purchases and usage for PC purchases and usage — Canalys figures that worldwide PC shipments are actually on the rise — up by 12% on last year to 134 million units for the quarter. That’s in contrast to figures from Gartner, which in January noted that Q4 PC shipments were down by 5% on last year — without factoring in tablets.

Adding Apple’s iPad sales to its Mac sales puts it into the lead among PC vendors. The company shipped 27 million PC units in Q4, giving it a 20.1% share of the market. The number-two vendor was HP, whose market share is based on its PC prowess. It shipped 15 million PCs, for an 11.2% share of the market. That let it edge just ahead of Lenovo, which shipped 200,000 fewer units.

Still, Android continues to make inroads. Canalys points out that this is the first quarter where Apple’s iPad has not accounted for more than 50% of all tablets shipped — it was 49%, as it happens, with Android accounting for 46%.

Apple’s savior was the iPad Mini: “Apple timed the launch of the iPad mini well,” writes Pin-Chen Tang, Canalys research analyst. “Its success proves there is a clear demand for pads with smaller screens at a more affordable price. Without the launch, Apple would surely have lost more ground to its competitors.” Indeed, that fact may well encourage Apple to look at more sizes and price points for its iOS devices in the future.

Overall, Canalys points out that the tablet market grew by 75% in Q4 to 46.2 million units, and that full-year shipments were 114.6 million units. Given that trend, Lenovo, which has been making some interesting hybrid models incorporating both touchscreen and keyboard features, could well pull ahead of HP if the latter doesn’t make some significant tablet inroads in the next couple of quarters.

Meanwhile, Samsung is at the other end of the spectrum: its strong performance, placing it into fourth place with 11.7 million units (9% market share) is based mostly on the success of its line of Galaxy Tab tablets. It shipped 7.6 million of these in Q4, a rise of 226%.

Dell, which is hoping for a turnaround as a private company, rounded out the top five. Dell’s reputation “continues to fade,” Canalys writes, resulting in a 19% drop in shipments in the quarter. “A turnaround in fortunes is likely to take years,” they note — so just as well that Dell will not have to answer so quickly to the markets for its performance.

As other analysts have pointed out, Windows 8 has so far had little impact on worldwide PC shipments, and an almost negligible impact on tablets — with only 3% of tablets shipped in the quarter based on Windows 8.  That has had a knock-on effect both for Windows and for those who make devices using the OS. “Microsoft’s involvement in the Dell buyout raises eyebrows in the light of its recent aspirations to become a hardware vendor,” Canalys notes. “But it is not likely to solve Dell’s problems as even Microsoft struggles with pads.” Equally difficult was Windows RT, which failed to break even 1 million units at 720,000 shipped. “The outlook for Windows RT appears bleak,” noted Tim Coulling, Canalys senior analyst. He believes the only way out for this is for Microsoft to drastically reduce the licensing price, cutting further into its margins on the product.

Western Europe’s slow economy also continues to weigh things down.

Amazon, selling only tablets and no PCs (yet?), didn’t make the top five but still managed a substantial volume shift. Its shipments were 4.6 million units, almost mirroring Dell’s decline with growth of 18%. With the Kindle Fire now selling in more markets worldwide, it will be interesting to see if Amazon can see a big boost this year or if it will be stymied by Apple and Samsung. For now, international is doing a good enough job to offset some small declines in the U.S., where the launch of the higher-priced Kindle Fire HD not proving to be a runaway success as the initial launch of the Kindle Fire was a year ago.

Wondering how the industry fared in the second quarter of 2012? Shipments in the PC sector, which in Canalys’ book includes tablets, were higher than ever, totaling 108,708,780 units globally. iPad sales put Apple in the lead, with more than 21 million devices shipped (this figure also includes desktops and notebooks) in Q2, compared to just over 13 million during the year-ago quarter, representing a massive 59.6-percent year-over-year growth. HP, which led the way in Q1, has fallen to the second-place spot, with nearly 13.6 million shipments during the quarter ending yesterday, followed by Lenovo with about 13.2 million, Acer with nearly 10.7 million and Dell with roughly 9.7 computers sold. Manufacturers like ASUS and Samsung are represented in the substantial “others” category, which totals about 40.6 million devices. There’s no question that the iPad is behind Apple earning the number-1 slot, and with the upcoming Windows 8 launch, those figures could shift drastically the next time around. Click on through to the source link below for the full Canalys breakdown.

Continue reading Canalys: PC and tablet shipments hit new high in Q2 with Apple in the lead, HP next in line

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops, Tablet PCs

Canalys: PC and tablet shipments hit new high in Q2 with Apple in the lead, HP next in line originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 01 Aug 2012 13:45:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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