Roger Fingas
The Apple Watch maintained a solid grip on smartwatch shipments during the March quarter, according to new estimates, even as rivals from Samsung and Fitbit made headway.
Apple claimed 35.8 percent of the market, Counterpoint Research said on Thursday. That's up just slightly year-over-year from 35.5 percent in Q1 2018, despite Apple Watch shipments reportedly rising 49 percent in the same timeframe.
Samsung's marketshare jumped from 7.2 to 11.1 percent, something Counterpoint credited to success of the latest Galaxy Watch models. These include a traditional round watchface, improved battery life, and 4G connectivity, making them one of the better smartwatch options for people who don't have or want an iPhone.
Fitbit rose from 3.7 percent to 5.5. Once focused on dedicated fitness trackers, the company's Ionic and Versa watches have expanded functions including third-party apps and Fitbit Pay.
Another notable maker was Huawei, which leapt to 2.8 percent of the market by launching the Huawei Watch GT.
Companies losing out in the quarter included imoo, Amazfit, Fossil, and Garmin. While Garmin is focused primarily on hardcore fitness, sports, and outdoors enthusiasts, the rest are trying to cater to a general market.
In disclosing quarterly wearables numbers on Tuesday, Apple kept precise Watch sales a secret as usual. It did say that wearable sales rose 50 percent year-over-year, and that roughly three-quarters of Watches were sold to people new to the hardware. Overall "Wearables, Home, and Accessories" revenue rose from $3.94 billion to $5.1 billion, though that includes AirPods, Beats products, Apple TVs, and the HomePod, among other things.
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"Overall "Wearables, Home, and Accessories" revenue rose from $3.94 billion to $5.1 billion, though that includes AirPods, Beats products, Apple TVs, and the HomePod, among other things."
Given the lack of popularity of HomePod & and Apple TV, I think one cans safely assume the increased revenue in this category is solely due to Apple Watch and AirPods (maybe Beats).
Insanely strange photo.
I absolutely LOVE the fact that journalists and analysts are going bat shit crazy over Apple’s decision to not release individual product sales figures. No one else does either , and never have, but somehow it’s mandatory for Apple and an indication they are hiding something. It’s a thing to behold. ROFL!
Yeah, tjwolf is pulling that theory out of their posterior. It’s certainly true that AirPods, the Apple Watch, and Beats are the top sellers in that category, but Apple TV in particular is a modest (maybe 25M a year in units) but steady seller with years of good word-of-mouth. Everyone and I mean **everyone** that owns one loves it — and Apple hasn’t even started letting people know how much their other boxes or “smart” TVs spy on them!
By comparison, I’m sure HomePod’s numbers are low — but it is the best selling smart speaker over $200. Those little Dots and Echos sell well now, but they will be keeping the Android tablets and two-year-old Android phones company in the drawers and recycling bins in due course — I’ve already seen a “privacy backlash” happening where people are hesitant to buy them because of the many stories about (in particular) Amazon’s abuse of privacy.
So in point of fact the HomePod is the world’s most popular HIGH-QUALITY smart speaker. But quality doesn’t appear to matter to some folks ... ahem ...