Report: Over 720,000 Android Wear Devices Shipped in 2014

More than 720,000 Android Wear devices were shipped last year out of total 4.6 million smart wearable bands, according to a report by analyst company Canalys.

Despite supply constrained Moto 360, Motorola was the leader among Android Wear vendors.

Pebble shipped more than 1 million in 2014, thanks to the regular software updates, rich ecosystem and price cuts.

'Samsung has launched six devices in just 14 months, on different platforms and still leads the smart band market. But it has struggled to keep consumers engaged and must work hard to attract developers while it focuses on Tizen for its wearables.' said Canalys VP and Principal Analyst Chris Jones.

Another notable mention in the wearables market is Xiaomi which followed completely different strategy and managed to ship more than a million units of Mi Band.

'Though the Mi Band is a lower-margin product than competing devices, Xiaomi entered the wearables market with a unique strategy, and its shipment volumes show how quickly a company can become a major force in a segment based solely on the size of the Chinese market,' added Canalys Research Analyst Jason Low.

The report notes that now all eyes are on Apple which is releasing its own first wearable Apple Watch. It is expected to dramatically grow the market for smart bands and wearables overall. 'Apple made the right decisions with its WatchKit software development kit to maximize battery life for the platform, and the Apple Watch will offer leading energy efficiency,' Canalys Analyst Daniel Matte added. 'Android Wear will need to improve significantly in the future, and we believe it will do so.'

Read the full report [PDF]