Wearables Week In Review

Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 on sale

Amazon offered a compelling Galaxy Watch 4 promotion this past week, featuring the device as the Deal of the Day. Amazon offered a bundle of the watch with a fast charging wireless charger for up to 26 percent less than the original price. That meant that the bundles were cheaper than buying the watch alone. Notably, the offer included both the Bluetooth and LTE models, as well as both sizes. As an example, the 40mm Bluetooth version (with charger) was $230 ($80 discount) while the LTE bundle was $280 (again, $80 discount).

The NPD Take:

• It is notable that these Samsung devices are relatively fresh to market, having launched in August, and are considered to be some of the best smartwatches on the market and a strong price point already. But we are seeing smartwatch adoption slow, with ownership levels remaining flat over the past six months and promotions are likely to be the way forward to entice the next 10 percent of the market to try out smartwatches
• We can expect more promotions moving forward, and anticipate that the wireless carriers will lead this charge to incent consumers to try a cellular-active version.