The Samsung Galaxy Gear, an Android-powered smartwatch that Samsung has been calling “the next big thing” in commercials, is officially a dud. Why? After BusinessKorea reported that Samsung has sold less than 50,000 units to date, Samsung quickly tried to spin the bad news by saying that it had in fact sold 800,000 units, making it the “most sold wearable watch available in the market place.”
Right. The only problem is that Samsung later confirmed that the 800,000 number was actually for units shipped, not sold, which is a big difference.
BusinessKorea’s sources said that the Galaxy Gear’s daily sales are under 800-900 units. On top of that, a leaked internal memo from Best Buy revealed that around a third of buyers are actually returning the Gear. What does it all add up to? A lot of unopened Gears sitting on store shelves.
The $299 smartwatch received overwhelming negative reviews when it launched last month. Former New York Times gadget reviewer David Pogue called it “inconsistent and frustrating,” Engadget said “it needs time to grow and develop,” and The Verge gave it a measly score of 4/10.
Samsung has been putting a lot of marketing force behind the Gear with TV ads that rip off old Apple ads, but also, to no avail. The Galaxy Gear, in its current form, is DOA. Samsung will probably release a couple more versions and make it more usable by the time Apple unveils its iWatch, but by then the public’s attention will shift to whatever Apple has up its sleeve. This is a classic example of Samsung trying to beat Apple to the punch with a mediocre product.
