Android Wear Slow Market Performance

Google smartwatches were very popular when they hit the market, but have been facing tough market conditions lately. According to research firm Canalys, only 720, 000 powered by Google’s Android Wear operating system were shipped within the last half of 2014.During the last 6 months of 2014 (same period), Apple Inc. shipped about 114 million smartphones. This means that Apple sold nearly as many smartphones everyday as the manufacturers of Android smartwatches sold in six months.A senior researcher at Canalys, Daniel Matte, was quick to point out some of the reasons why Android Wear was performing dismally. In his opinion, poor battery life was one of the problems hounding this smart device. It appears Google should have optimized its smartwatch operating system to make for longer battery life. This is not the first time that analysts have complained about Google’s operating systems not making way for ample battery life. The latest version of Android mobile operating system released, Android 5.0 Lollipop, had serious battery issues. Most of the high-flying Android smartphones are also simply out-competed by Apple’s devices due to less-than-flattering battery capacity.These reports are a drastic turn of events, especially considered that Android smartwatches were the star at Google’s annual developer conference held June 2014. Lenovo’s round-faced Moto 360 was among the smartwatches that won the most praise, followed by Samsung’s and LG’s smartwatches.Perhaps the near-halt in sales was a result of the death of smartwatch apps. Although there currently are tens of thousands of smartwatch apps available, that’s fairly a small number compared to the vast variety of smartphone apps available. More so, consumers have been increasingly weighing whether or not they need an additional digital device.An apple smartwatch scheduled to be released on April this year might also be putting buyers on hold.