While the Apple Watch remained the most popular smartwatch in the first quarter of 2016, with an estimated 2.2 million sold, its market share dropped to 52.4%, down from a 63% share in the previous quarter.
Research firm Strategy Analytics released their latest data this week, and it shows increasing competition from Android Wear rivals such as LG and Motorola.
“We estimate Apple Watch shipped 2.2 million units and captured 52 percent smartwatch marketshare worldwide in Q1 2016, dipping from 63 percent share in Q4 2015,” said Neil Mawston, Executive Director at Strategy Analytics. “Samsung shipped 0.6 million smartwatches, capturing 14 percent marketshare worldwide for second position. Apple Watch and Samsung Gear models are expanding fast across dozens of countries, but competition from LG, Motorola and others is ramping up fast.”
Apple doesn’t need to be looking over its shoulder any time soon though, as the nearest single competitor is Samsung, whose 600,000 shipments were good for second place. All other vendors combined added up to 1.4 million units shipped for the quarter.
Global smartwatch sales overall reached 4.2 million units in the first quarter of 2016, for a 223% increase over a year ago. Growth was driven by demand in North America, Western Europe, and Asia.
Apple doesn’t break out its Apple Watch sales, instead grouping them into the Other Products category with iPods and Beats headphones. So any Apple numbers used by Strategy Analytics are merely estimates.
Apple faces the same market share issues with their Watch as they do with the iPhone. While competitors are numerous, and release multiple versions of their devices each year, Apple generally releases a new model once a year. In the case of the Apple Watch, it’s been a year since the first model was released. A new Apple Watch isn’t expected to be announced until late summer/early fall.
(Via MacRumors)
