Apple Watch hits 10,000 apps: How do Android Wear, Pebble, and Samsung compare?

By David Curry September 9, 2015

apple watch apps comparison watchos 2 0009 — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Apple officially offers more apps for its smartwatch than Android Wear, Pebble, and Samsung’s Tizen-based Gear smartwatches. The total number of apps that were specifically built for the Apple Watch is now at 10,000, which is a huge an increase over the 1,500 apps it began with in June. Apple updated the app number at its event earlier today, where it also announced the iPad Pro, iPhone 6S, and fourth-gen Apple TV.

The sheer number of apps available for Apple Watch puts WatchOS quite far ahead of other competitors. The closest competitor in the horse race is Pebble, with more than 6,000 apps as of February 2015. Pebble might be up to 7,000 apps now, considering the time that has passed since the last update. Even so, that’s still behind Apple’s numbers.

Even worse, Pebble started its store on Feb 2014, so it had a year head start on the Apple Watch. The launch of Android Wear and WatchOS has slowed the amount of developer attention on the Pebble Time and Pebble Time Steel, meaning the gap is only going to increase unless Pebble makes a big announcement in the near future.

Samsung comes second in the race with 6,000 apps, if you combine the 1,000 apps available for the Gear S2 and 5,000 other Gear apps. The original Gear was one of the most popular smartwatches, with more than one million sales. The Gear S2 seems equally popular, considering the strong reception by consumers at IFA 2015 — we even gave it an award for best wearable at the event.

Finally, Android Wear comes in last place with 4,000 apps as of Google I/O. We doubt those numbers have shot up since May, considering that Samsung has dropped Android Wear in favor of Tizen, and sales from other providers have been below average.

Google has the most smartwatches on the market, but it has the least apps to show for it. Apple has the lowest amount of smartwatches on the market, but has the most apps to show for it. It seems like developers like the idea of a “one fits all” approach.

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