The Apple Watch has seen more sales in 2015 than all competing smartwatches, despite being released towards the end of April.
This is according to the latest study from Juniper Research, which revealed that the Apple Watch claimed 52% of global smartwatch shipments in 2015. Out of 17.1 million smart watches shipped last year, 8.8 million were Apple Watches.
Meanwhile its rival vendors who are competing in the same space have not done as well.
The research further revealed Android Wear shipments have only comprised of less than 10% of sales for the same year with Samsung's Tizen-based Gear S2 not achieving strong sales volumes since it launched in November.
Most other smartwatch sales are currently coming from cheaper, simpler devices from a range of smaller players, such as Martian, X and Razer, with its recently announced Nabu Watch.
Juniper attributed the Apple Watch's success to its wealth of apps, with 10 000 available on Apple's device compared to only 4 000 for Android-powered counterparts.
Tanya Kovarsky, spokesperson for the Core Group, the authorised SA Apple distributor, says: "Although I'm not in a position to share sales numbers, I can attribute the popularity of the Apple Watch to the way it tethers with the iPhone mobile device, receiving notifications and calls etc.
"The watch is driven by style but another aspect of the watch that consumers are enjoying are its health and fitness apps".
Furthermore, the research argues that while many smartwatch vendors have produced ranges of watches, allowing for customisation and price segmentation, there have been no great leaps and the smartwatch is a category still awaiting a market.
"The key thing holding the market back is that they do not have a definite use case for most consumers - many are still asking what they are for. With smartwatch functions established, it is now up to consumers to decide if they want them, rather than technology companies providing more reasons for consumers to buy them," says James Moar, research author at Juniper Research.
Talking about the software of the smartwatches and its impact on usage, Moar says he has observed some dedicated smartwatch games, but the bulk of software is based on notifications and location data. Meaning that smartwatches are likely to be used for 'utility' purposes, like navigation and notifications, than anything new or specialised.
"We are seeing more multifunctional devices come onto the market, but there is also a strong trend among luxury watchmakers to provide limited amounts of smart functionality to traditional watches.
"As these companies are not looking to sell large amounts in future we do not expect large volumes of simpler smartwatches to be shipped," explained Moar in anticipation of future trends.
Other key findings were the price point remains high for smartwatches. However finance deals with retailers are expected to be a key part in mitigating this concern, as well as making smartwatches more visible to general consumers.
"In the next five years prices will drop and we can expect more take up of Android Wear devices than has been the case to date. However Samsung appears to be abandoning the Android Wear platform, and Tizen will emerge as a third-place OS over time, supplanting Pebble," he reveals.
According to wearables.com Apple is preparing to introduce its second-generation Apple Watch 2 smartwatch in March with the next-gen smartwatch due to go on sale in April 2016.
The improved Apple Watch will reportedly focus on an HD video camera being integrated into the front of the watch, as well as the ability for wearers to receive and send texts, e-mails or app updates without having to be connected to an accompanying iPhone, as the original watch requires. The front video camera would also allow Watch wearers to video conference with other users.
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