Samsung Electronics says Gear smartwatch shipments hit 800,000 in two months, defying some market concerns the accessory would fail due to a lack of compelling features

November 20, 2013 Leave a comment

Samsung Electronics says Gear smartwatch shipments hit 800,000 in two months

7:03pm EST

SEOUL (Reuters) – Samsung Electronics Co said on Tuesday its Galaxy Gear has become the world’s most popular smartwatch with shipments reaching 800,000 since its debut two months ago, defying some market concerns the accessory would fail due to a lack of compelling features. The company’s statement referred to sales of the smartwatch, but Samsung later clarified that it was basing its figures on shipments to retailers and mobile operators.The South Korean firm said Gear sales have been better than its own expectations and it would expand sales promotions for the wearable device for the crucial year-end holiday sales.

Samsung has poured marketing resources into the Gear with heavy advertisements and collaborations with fashion shows to seize leadership in the wearable computer market after the device got off to a rocky start after being critically panned by reviewers.

Well-known tech reviewer David Pogue, who recently left the New York Times to start a new consumer-tech web site at Yahoo, described its design as “inconsistent and frustrating” and recommended nobody buy it.

The product marks Samsung’s latest attempt to prove that it is more than just a fast follower in innovation behind Apple Inc. The Cupertino California-based firm is widely speculated by media and analysts to be working on wearable device.

Priced at around $300, the Gear works as an accessory to its market leading Galaxy smartphone, with a small OLED screen offering basic functions like photos, hands-free calls and message notifications.

Market expectations on the device have been not so strong, as it has only around 70 dedicated applications.

UK retailer Phones4U offered the Gear for free to consumers buying the Galaxy Note3 on contract earlier this month, while earlier media reports said that the device was suffering some 30 percent return rates in U.S. stores of Best Buy.

“It’s the most sold wearable watch available in the market place…and we plan to expand its availability by expanding mobile devices that work with the Gear,” Samsung said in a statement.

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Kee Koon Boon (“KB”) is the co-founder and director of HERO Investment Management which provides specialized fund management and investment advisory services to the ARCHEA Asia HERO Innovators Fund (www.heroinnovator.com), the only Asian SMID-cap tech-focused fund in the industry. KB is an internationally featured investor rooted in the principles of value investing for over a decade as a fund manager and analyst in the Asian capital markets who started his career at a boutique hedge fund in Singapore where he was with the firm since 2002 and was also part of the core investment committee in significantly outperforming the index in the 10-year-plus-old flagship Asian fund. He was also the portfolio manager for Asia-Pacific equities at Korea’s largest mutual fund company. Prior to setting up the H.E.R.O. Innovators Fund, KB was the Chief Investment Officer & CEO of a Singapore Registered Fund Management Company (RFMC) where he is responsible for listed Asian equity investments. KB had taught accounting at the Singapore Management University (SMU) as a faculty member and also pioneered the 15-week course on Accounting Fraud in Asia as an official module at SMU. KB remains grateful and honored to be invited by Singapore’s financial regulator Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) to present to their top management team about implementing a world’s first fact-based forward-looking fraud detection framework to bring about benefits for the capital markets in Singapore and for the public and investment community. KB also served the community in sharing his insights in writing articles about value investing and corporate governance in the media that include Business Times, Straits Times, Jakarta Post, Manual of Ideas, Investopedia, TedXWallStreet. He had also presented in top investment, banking and finance conferences in America, Italy, Sydney, Cape Town, HK, China. He has trained CEOs, entrepreneurs, CFOs, management executives in business strategy & business model innovation in Singapore, HK and China.

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