The wearables market is combining to grow nicely, and the latest report by Strategy Analytics shows the winners and losers through 2019 of the various smartwatch manufacturers.
Now we always caveat these numbers to say that they’re not official sales figures, which Apple doesn’t release. So these Strategy Analytics figures are all estimated from various datasets, usually within the supply chain. Got that? Right let’s go:
In Q3 the apple Watch, unsurprisingly, is still the pace setter. Strategy Analytics estimates 6.8 million smartwatches were shipped by the Cupertino company – and crucially a 51% growth year-on-year.
Samsung is still quietly getting business done, making up second place in the wearables market with 1.9 million smartwatches in 2019 and an impressive 73 year-on-year growth.
But at this point it’s really Fitbit’s performance that piques our interest given its recent $2.1bn buyout by Google.
It’s now third in the leaderboard with 7% year-on-year growth. It shows the gulf between Fitbit and the rest of the smartwatch clan – but also that the company is far from done in terms of market share.
Apple now has a 47.9% share of the smartwatch market, with Samsung in at 13.4 (a new second place) and Fitbit slips from a 15% share to 11.3%.
And a quick shoutout to Wear OS. The fact that no single manufacturer that uses Wear OS is troubling the scorers here is not a good sign for Google. Nor is it positive for Fossil, which given the incredible array of full-display and hybrid smartwatches in its line-up, should challenge the Fitbit Versa for sales.
It’s little wonder that Google has aggressively moved to acquire Fitbit. But perhaps a global release of the Xiaomi Mi Watch could change the maths. Watch this space.
How we test
James is the co-founder of Wareable, and he has been a technology journalist for 15 years.
He started his career at Future Publishing, James became the features editor of T3 Magazine and T3.com and was a regular contributor to TechRadar – before leaving Future Publishing to found Wareable in 2014.
James has been at the helm of Wareable since 2014 and has become one of the leading experts in wearable technologies globally. He has reviewed, tested, and covered pretty much every wearable on the market, and is passionate about the evolving industry, and wearables helping people achieve healthier and happier lives.