The smartwatch market, frankly stagnant in recent years, experienced a major shake-up last summer with the release of the long-awaited Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 powered by Google’s Wear OS. Already in the fall, Apple’s share began to decline , yielding to WearOS solutions, and the market began to grow rapidly. And according to a recent report from Counterpoint Research, the momentum continued into the first quarter of 2022, with global shipments of smartwatches up 13% Q1 2021 over that period.

Apple, which still occupies more than a third of the market, increased sales by 14%, but even taking this into account, its share increased slightly: from 35.9% to 36.1%. But Samsung’s share is growing much more noticeably: from 7.8% a year earlier to 10.1% of the market now, which is explained by a 46% increase in sales (primarily due to the Galaxy Watch 4). Surprisingly, Huawei shows itself stably, although it lost a small percentage of the market (from 8.1 to 7.2%), but retained the volume of shipments. But even more interesting will be Xiaomi, which has risen to the 4th line of the rating with a 69% increase in sales. As follows from the report, the company hits a record of shipments every quarter, although the largest part of sales falls on the budget segment under $100.

The American Garmin, which has become the fifth in terms of supplies, ranks third in terms of income due to the high average price tag – the vast majority of watches sold are in the premium segment above $500. Amazfit shows slow but steady development, while imoo, a subsidiary of BBK, is losing share and showing double-digit supply cuts. Regarding the prospects for the smart watch market, researchers expect a slowdown, the main reason for which is the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, which is already having a negative impact on the activity of the European consumer.

© Vladimir Kovalev. mobile phone

Sourced from counterpointresearch.com