Samsung Moves To Dominate Smartwatch Brand Recognition

There's nothing like going out for a brisk walk through your workplace with your brand new smartwatch only to have it mistaken for another brand. How harsh is it to be the victim of brand dominance? If you've got a smartwatch and it's not made by Samsung, you likely already know what I'm talking about.

The Samsung Galaxy Gear TV advertisements have taken hold. Compared to the coverage the rest of the smartwatch universe is getting, Samsung's efforts with the Galaxy Gear are all but crushing the entire market. There's only one product we've ever seen in our modern technology industry that has taken this much of the public eye in recent memory.

When you whip out a tablet at an airport and someone asks you about it, they assume it's an iPad. Anyone betting cash on what the next person walking by thinks the tablet your holding is will bet on the name iPad, without fail. Any other sort of tablet that's distinctly non-iPad-looking will be called "that new iPad" or something similar.

Now we've got Samsung's efforts moving with great intent on this emerging market. The smartwatch is on the rise, and even if it's not here to stay, Samsung's aim right this minute is to make the appearance of the smartwatch in public as synonymous with their brand name as Band-aid is with adhesive strips.

Here's your test: can you name the three smartwatches in the lead image of this article? They are, in no particular order, the Samsung Galaxy Gear, the Pebble, and the Sony Smartwatch 2. Also of note: these three are essentially the headliner smartwatches at the moment – they're all also up for sale at Best Buy sitting next to one another right this minute, with major variations in compatibility with different smartphone types.

While the Samsung Galaxy Gear works with a variety of Samsung Android smartphones, the Sony Smartwatch 2 works with essentially every Android smartphone from the past several years. Pebble, meanwhile, works with a massive cross-section of Android devices as well as the iPhone.

There's also a WIMM out there in the public somewhere as well as a Qualcomm Toq watch – would you know them all by name on the street?

At the moment we're only seeing part of the picture. As Apple's products in the past have demonstrated, any entry into a new category is going to drive massive amounts of public mindshare. That means one whole heck of a lot of people will be aware of the product in some capacity.

As Apple demonstrated early on with the iPad, sometimes it's not about having all the features but having the public mindshare that matters most. While we've yet to see absolutely solid numbers on the first waves of device sales in this smartphone segment, the results are already clear: Samsung is winning in the minds of everyday average citizens.