AppleWatch dominated 52% of global smartwatch shipments: study

Apple Watches accounted for about 52 per cent of global smartwatch shipments last year, since their launch in April 2015.

According to data released by Juniper research, Apple Watches surpassed Android Wear's under 10 per cent share of global sales by a huge margin.

Apple's biggest competitor, former market leader, Samsung too failed to make a mark in the market. The Tizen-powered Gear S2 smartwatch failed to appeal to the market although, it was only available for purchase in November.

Of the estimated 17.1 million smartwatches shipped globally last year, the Apple Watch accounted for 8.8 million devices sold - or over 51.5 per cent.

According to Juniper, the Apple smartwatch dominated over its rivals, largely because of  the number of apps available for the device -  while Apple Watch had 10,000 apps, Android Wear devices as of 2015 May had around 4,000 apps. The lack of apps implied that devices such as Samsung's Tizen-based Gear2 are attract fewer users.

Relative newcomers like Martian and Razor accounted for the remaining smartwatch sales. The new entrants develop devices that are far cheaper and do not offer the same array of applications Apple and Samsung have on offer.

Contrary to reports that Apple Watch demand had slowed down following the initial media buzz, according to Juniper Research, Apple's first wearable did well last year.

Apple is reported to have ordered 4 million units of the Watch for the fourth quarter of last year to cater to the holiday shopping season.

It was estimated that Apple would sell 10 million Watches by the end of the year.

The second-generation Apple Watch 2 is expected to be announced in March and two exclusive Watch models have been lined up for the Chinese New Year.

The future for the Apple Watch appears to be brighter, according to IDC's prediction that Apple would sell over 45 million watches in 2019.