Apple Solidifies Lead in Smartwatch Market; Google, Samsung, Huawei Fall

Apple captured 33.5 p.c of smartwatch market share globally within the first quarter of 2021. Latest information by Counterpoint exhibits the smartwatch market grew 35 p.c year-on-year (YoY) in Q1 2021 with Apple taking the lead as soon as once more, adopted by Huawei and Samsung. In phrases of working system, Apple’s watchOS is adopted by Samsung’s Tizen OS with Google’s Wear OS lagging behind at 3.9 p.c. Counterpoint famous that Huawei continued to face declining smartwatch gross sales owing to their optimisation with Huawei telephones.

Thanks to Apple Watch SE and Apple Watch Series 6 gross sales, Apple was in a position to solidify its place within the smartwatch area globally capturing 33.5 percent market share in Q1 2021. In the primary quarter of final yr, Apple had secured 30.3 p.c smartwatch market share that put it snug forward of the competitors even final yr. The Cupertino big additionally noticed 50 p.c YoY enhance in demand for the brand new Apple Watch Series 6 fashions, Counterpoint famous.

Samsung’s smartwatch shipments grew by 27 p.c due to its Galaxy Watch 3 and Galaxy Watch Active collection however its market share dropped YoY. Samsung captured 8 p.c market share in Q1 2021 that was 0.5 p.c lower than final yr. Huawei noticed additional decline in market share because it went from 10.1 p.c in Q1 2020 to eight.4 p.c in Q1 2021. Counterpoint states, “Huawei continued to face headwinds because of the declining smartwatch sales and how well Huawei watches are optimised for its smartphones.”

Imoo, owned by BBK Electronics, additionally noticed a decline from 7.2 p.c to five.1 p.c YoY market share in Q1 2021. Fitbit, that’s now owned by Google, went from 4.5 p.c in Q1 2020 to 4.2 p.c in Q1 2021. Overall, the smartwatch market grew by 35 p.c in Q1 2021 in comparison with Q1 2020.

In phrases of working methods, since many smartphone manufactures have determined to step away from Wear OS — like Fitbit OS, Tizen, Garmin OS, and RTOS — Google’s working system captured solely 3.9 p.c of the market share. Naturally, Apple’s watchOS was within the lead securing 33.5 p.c market share with Samsung’s Tizen OS following at 8 p.c. Now that Google introduced its partnership with Samsung at Google I/O 2021 to collectively develop its Wear OS – and contemplating it already owns Fitbit – it could be fascinating to see how this consolidation performs out. Vice President Research at Counterpoint Neil Shah mentioned this merger will “attract more developers to build newer experiences for the wrist.”