Samsung's strong Q2 cuts Apple's global lead in smartwatch shipments
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During the second quarter of this year, Apple remained the leader in global deliveries of basic watches and smartwatches with a 26.4% share, well ahead of Samsung's 8.9% slice of the pie. But Samsung made some real inroads hacking away at Apple's lead during the second quarter. According to Canalys, the Korean manufacturer saw its watch shipments soar by 58% year-over-year during the second quarter while Apple's shipments of the Apple Watch rose only 6%.
Apple shipped more Apple Watch units during Q2 but saw its share of the market decline
Apple shipped 8.4 million timepieces from April through June of this year compared to the 7.9 million it delivered during the same months last year. According to Canalys, Samsung shipped 2.8 million watches during Q2 2022, up from the 1.8 million it sent out in 2021. The strong growth registered by Samsung during the quarter not only reduced Apple's lead over the company from 24.1 percentage points to 17.5 percentage points, but it also allowed Samsung to leapfrog Huawei to take over second place.
During Q2, Apple remained on top of the global smartwatch market while Samsung leapfrogged Huawei for second place
Huawei was third with 2.6 million smartwatches shipped last quarter and despite scoring a 14% annual hike in shipments, the company's market share declined from 9% to 8.3% year-over-year. India's Noise was fourth as shipments soared 382% from 400,000 units sent during the second quarter of 2021 to 1.8 million units delivered in the second quarter of 2022. The company now has a 5.8% share of the global market compared to the 1.5% share it had last year.
Garmin was right behind after shipping 1.7 million watches from April through June this year. But that was off by 11% from the 1.9 million units it delivered during the 2021 second quarter. Garmin now owns 5.5% of the global market, off from the year earlier's 7.6%.
The Apple Watch Ultra is the tech giant's new premium smartwatch
Altogether, 31.7 million watches were shipped worldwide during the second quarter of 2022, a healthy 25% hike from the 25.4 million shipped during the second quarter of 2021. Canalys Analyst Cynthia Chen says, "Within the Android space, Samsung is leading in leveraging its watches to enhance its premium ecosystem user experience. The latest releases from Samsung and Garmin and expected releases from Apple and Google in the coming months are intensifying competition among premium smartwatches."
A new challenger will enter the smartwatch space next month
Chen adds, "Smartwatch users are better informed about smartwatches and will choose the devices that offer the best tracking capabilities for their intended use cases, for general health tracking or sports performance tracking. The premium user experience extends from attractive designs and good build quality to intuitive software, seamless ecosystem integration and effective health tracking. While challenging, vendors must build experience and knowledge in developing software and tracking algorithms, combining them with a robust digital health strategy to win in the long term."
Time to pre-order you new Apple Watch Series 8, second-generation Apple Watch SE, or the Apple Watch Ultra!
Apple yesterday introduced three new Apple Watch models, the Apple Watch Series 8, the second generation Apple Watch SE, and the rugged (and pricey) Apple Watch Ultra. Just last month, Samsung released the Galaxy Watch 5 and the Galaxy Watch 5 Pro. And on October 6th, the Google Pixel Watch finally becomes a reality as the device is expected to be introduced during the next Made By Google event.
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