Of the 4.6 million smart wearable bands shipped in 2014, Fitbit led the pack on the low-end, but less than a million of all devices sold were running Google's Android Wear OS.
According to Wednesday data from Canalys, about 720,000 Android Wear devices shipped in 2014, with the Motorola Moto 360 the most popular of the Google-based smartwatches.
LG's round G Watch R was also relatively well-received, besting the original G Watch, but Android Wear was unable to top popular brands like Pebble, which has now sold more than 1 million smartwatches since its 2013 launch. "Continual software updates, more apps in its app store, and price cuts in the fall helped [Pebble] maintain strong sales in the second half of the year," Canalys said.
Still, Samsung "still leads the smart band market," according to the firm, largely because it released six devices on a variety of platforms in just 14 months. "But it has struggled to keep consumers engaged and must work hard to attract developers while it focuses on Tizen for its wearables," Canalys VP and Principal Analyst Chris Jones said in a statement.
Another possible hurdle for Samsung: Xiaomi. The manufacturer has already beat Samsung in China on smartphones, and it appears that wearables might be its next target. Xiaomi shipped more than 1 million MiBands last year, including one-day sales that topped 103,000 devices, Canalys said.
"Though the MiBand is a lower-margin product than competing devices, Xiaomi entered the wearables market with a unique strategy, and its shipment volumes show how quickly a company can become a major force in a segment based solely on the size of the Chinese market," said Canalys Research Analyst Jason Low.
Fitbit, however, "remained the global leader in the basic wearable band market," the firm said. That will likely continue this year, as the company just released its Fitbit Charge HR and Surge (slideshow above).
Of course, the big question is, how will the Apple Watch affect these numbers? It arrives in April and Canalys expects it to "dramatically grow the market for smart bands and wearables overall."