The global market for smartwatches has continued to grow; the market has seen five consecutive quarters of double-digit growth.

That’s according to Counterpoint Research, which found that Apple kept the lead with 36.1 percent, followed by Samsung with 10 percent, and Huawei with 7.2 percent. Xiaomi was fourth with 5 percent and Garmin fifth with 4.3 percent. The top five had been the same in the first quarter of the year, although Apple had 35.9 percent at the time and Samsung second with 7.8 percent.

In the first quarter of 2022 rankings, Amazfit was sixth with 4 percent, followed by Imoo with 3.4 percent and Fitbit with 2.7 percent. Fitbit was acquired by Google for $2.1 billion in early 2021. In addition, 29 percent of the growth came in North America, with 23 percent in China, 18 percent in Europe, and 29 percent in the rest of the world. 

“After the merger with Google, Fitbit appears to be undergoing an internal reorganization. As a result, there were no new models released last year, and the transition to Wear OS was delayed, so its sales decreased compared to the same period of the previous year,” the Counterpoint report said of that company. 

“Although the global smartwatch market saw little growth in 2020 due to the impact of Covid-19, it has continued to perform well since its rebound last year. In particular, Apple accounted for more than a third of the total shipments last year, and it is further increasing its influence with a market share of 36% in the first quarter of this year,” Counterpoint Associate Director Sujeong Lim said in the release. 

Part of Apple’s success, according to the report, was the relatively late launch of the Apple Watch 7, which arrived a month later than expected, and pushed some sales into 2022 

“The high brand loyalty of iPhone users is one of the success factors of the Apple Watch. This popularity appears to be higher among the younger generation, making Apple an irreplaceable market leader. Of course, everything was possible because of the high performance of the product and the excellent connection among supported iOS devices. We believe that Apple’s market share is likely to rise further by the end of this year.

What did geopolitics have to do with the numbers this quarter? 

We initially expected the war between Russia and Ukraine to have minimal impact on the market in Q1, but the prolongation of the conflict and the resulting logistical constraints have begun to affect the European region. The impact of the war will become more serious in Q2.”

 

Stephen Silver, a technology writer for The National Interest, is a journalist, essayist and film critic, who is also a contributor to The Philadelphia Inquirer, Philly Voice, Philadelphia Weekly, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Living Life Fearless, Backstage magazine, Broad Street Review and Splice Today. The co-founder of the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle, Stephen lives in suburban Philadelphia with his wife and two sons. Follow him on Twitter at @StephenSilver.

Image: Reuters