Apple Watch continues domination of growing smartwatch market with 100M users

The Apple Watch has maintained its dominance over the entire smartwatch industry in the second quarter of 2021 as the sector grew 27% year-over-year.

Although Apple remained the top smartwatch maker globally, it lost some market share in the second quarter due to increasing competition from both China- and India-based brands, according to a Counterpoint Research report. Still, the Apple Watch active user base has crossed the 100 million market in Q2 2021.

"Apple's ecosystem is seeing a greater attach rate as the brand continues to bake in attractive designs, health features and related services around it," said Counterpoint analyst Sujeong Lim. "Apple Watch's user base crossed the 100-million mark for the first time during the quarter ended June, capturing the lion's share of the smartwatch user base globally."

However, other smartwatch brands are growing rapidly. Samsung and Garmin, for example, saw shipment growth of 43% and 62% year-over-year respectively. Those numbers exceed the average market growth rate, as well as the growth rates of other top brands.

According to Counterpoint Research, the Apple Watch Series 6 was the top smartwatch model by number of shipments globally. It was followed by the Apple Watch SE, Samsung Galaxy Watch Active 2, Apple Watch Series 3, and Imoo Z6-4G, in that order.

North America remained the largest smartwatch market in the world, while China also grew during the period. However, China's smartwatch growth rate was lower than other regions and its share by region also decreased. India's share by region grew from 2% to 6% between Q2 2020 and Q2 2021.

8 Comments

Xed 2871 comments · 4 Years

About 3 years ago

Nobody wears watches anymore.
People only want collectible watches that will go up in value.
Watches are round, not ~~square~~ rectangular.
If Samsung couldn't make this market segment work for the last decade then Apple is foolish for thinking they have a chance.
Steve would've never allowed this.

mike_galloway 115 comments · 4 Years

Xed said:

Nobody wears watches anymore.
People only want collectible watches that will go up in value.
Watches are round, not ~~square~~ rectangular.
If Samsung couldn't make this market segment work for the last decade then Apple is foolish for thinking they have a chance.
Steve would've never allowed this.

correct - except for the fact that Steve probably would have allowed it otherwise the iPhone would have been round.

Kuyangkoh 838 comments · 7 Years

mike_galloway said:

Xed said:

Nobody wears watches anymore.
People only want collectible watches that will go up in value.
Watches are round, not ~~square~~ rectangular.
If Samsung couldn't make this market segment work for the last decade then Apple is foolish for thinking they have a chance.
Steve would've never allowed this.

correct - except for the fact that Steve probably would have allowed it otherwise the iPhone would have been round.

Must be an awesomely round iphone

rezwits 854 comments · 17 Years

What's so, so, SO SAD, are the people who got the first one or Gen 1, and are like "This thing sucks, it's too slow. It can't even do anything. I am never buying a watch again." Sad, so sad...

The thing is INSANE!!

2¢

dewme 5737 comments · 10 Years

rezwits said:

What's so, so, SO SAD, are the people who got the first one or Gen 1, and are like "This thing sucks, it's too slow. It can't even do anything. I am never buying a watch again." Sad, so sad...

The thing is INSANE!!

2¢

I bought the first one, Gen 0 or whatever it's called, and it was a super reliable no-fuss product that never disappointed me in any way. I only upgraded to a Gen 5 when I decided I needed the LTE/phone capability and the additional health features. The Apple Watch has been one of if not the single most reliable and satisfying Apple products I've ever owned. I thought there would be some anxiety about battery life, but battery life has not been an issue for me at all. The only negative feelings I have around my Apple Watch occur when I look in the drawer that has my small collection of fancy traditional watches that I never wear anymore. I've thought about wearing two watches, but I'd probably be snatched up and delivered straight to the loony bin if regular people saw me doing that.