AirPods & Apple Watch market share insight opens debate on consumer choice

New report reveals numbers on Apple's market dominance

Following the US Department of Justice's comprehensive antitrust lawsuit against Apple, new insights have emerged that shed light on Apple's influence within the market.

The DOJ filed the lawsuit on Thursday, March 21, accusing Apple of violating antitrust law and saying the company is a monopoly abusing its market dominance.

One aspect of the DOJ's case highlights how Apple allegedly limits the capabilities of smartwatches from competitors, particularly those running on Android when used with its own devices.

Market shares of Bluetooth earphones among iOS and Android users for the year ending December 2023

However, a report from Consumer Intelligence Research Partners (CIRP) on March 27 provides insight into Apple's accessory market share. It reveals a strong preference among iPhone users for Apple-branded accessories like AirPods and the Apple Watch.

More than 80% of those who purchase an Apple iPhone and also own a smartwatch or fitness tracker choose the Apple Watch. With Bluetooth headsets, AirPods command a significant majority among iPhone users who purchase Bluetooth headsets, with nearly two-thirds opting for AirPods.

In contrast, Samsung, a major player in the Android market, attracts less than 20% of Android users looking for Bluetooth headsets.

Apple responds to DOJ antitrust lawsuit

Apple's "walled garden" approach, promoting a seamless integration of its products and software, has long been a hallmark of its brand. The company defends its strategy as enhancing the user experience, but the DOJ contends it has partly enabled Apple's dominance by violating antitrust laws.

Horizontal bar graph showing market share of smartwatches on iOS and Android: Apple Watch at 82%, Samsung at 40%, Fitbit at 26% and 9% on iOS, and other brands at 34% and 9%.

Market distribution of smartwatches among iOS and Android purchasers throughout the year ending in December 2023

These actions, according to Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter, are part of a "Whac-A-Mole" strategy of contractual rules and restrictions allowing Apple to "extract higher prices from consumers, impose higher fees on developers and creators, and throttle competitive alternatives."

Apple has contested all allegations, asserting that they either stem from outdated data or are mischaracterizations of its operational practices.

One of the questions that the DOJ is exploring is whether consumers stick with Apple products because of loyalty to its devices or because Apple is limiting their choices and locking them inside the ecosystem.

"Do branded accessories attract buyers based on product alignment and design, or the fear that mixing brands increases the risk of interoperability problems?" CIRP asks. "Has the smartphone manufacturer made it difficult for competing devices to break into their system, with purposeful compatibility advantages that create an uneven playing field?"

The DOJ has accused Apple of creating an ecosystem that limits user choices, suggesting that Apple's practices restrict the options available to its customers. But its products still work with Android devices.

People who own an Apple Watch or AirPods can use them with their Android smartphones. Meanwhile, Google and Samsung have stopped supporting wearOS 4 on iPhones, reducing the choices for iPhone users interested in alternative smartwatch options.

Ultimately, there's a difference between commanding a significant share of a market, and attracting users based on device compatibility with software and services. So far, suggests that the continued preference for Apple products among its users stems from brand loyalty.

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12 Comments

40domi 138 comments · 1 Year

About 7 months ago

This article is as laughable & under cooked as the DoJ lawsuit,
I'm shocked any iPhone user, uses anything other than Air Pods 😳 They are clearly the best in the market, should Apple make them worse to satisfy the DoJ and other manufacturers?
Samsung watch has already 40% of the market on Android and it was launched 4 years later than Apple Watch, isn't giving Samsung watches away & Samsung Pods for free (bundled with their phones) anti competitive to other blue tooth headset manufacturers, because they don't make phones?
Anyway other watches work with iPhone, Samsung & Google have purposely made their watches incompatible with iPhone !

avon b7 8008 comments · 20 Years

About 7 months ago

40domi said:

This article is as laughable & under cooked as the DoJ lawsuit,
I'm shocked any iPhone user, uses anything other than Air Pods 😳 They are clearly the best in the market, should Apple make them worse to satisfy the DoJ and other manufacturers?
Samsung watch has already 40% of the market on Android and it was launched 4 years later than Apple Watch, isn't giving Samsung watches away & Samsung Pods for free (bundled with their phones) anti competitive to other blue tooth headset manufacturers, because they don't make phones?
Anyway other watches work with iPhone, Samsung & Google have purposely made their watches incompatible with iPhone !

AirPods are not 'clearly the best' on the market because users look for different aspects and no one earbud model can meet all user needs.

Technically too, AirPods have lagged behind competitors on many levels, but once again, people look for different technical aspects.

It is not all about audio quality, for example.

I think it's logical for users to prefer a brand they know, so an AirPods/iDevice pairing makes sense.

Likewise a Samsung or Huawei branded pairing.

It's also true that manufacturers can offer less on competing platforms to make their own offerings appear more attractive.

The problems arise though when manufacturers try to limit accessibility unnaturally to their platforms. That might be a different story. I don't know if that's the case.

We'll have to wait and see how they flesh things out.

Marketshare dominance (in this case it's limited to the US market) isn't relevant unless that dominance was fruit of abusing a dominant position.

As in the App Store situation, the key here are the competing players, as they know full well the problems they face when deploying to iDevices.

thedba 790 comments · 12 Years

About 7 months ago

At this point I think the DOJ would want AirPods, Apple watch, iPhone, iPad and Mac to be separate independent entities.

Why wouldn't Apple want its devices to work seamlessly together?

Correct me if I'm wrong, but do other watches work with an iPhone through an app? If someone wanted a Garmin or a Fitbit, wouldn't that work on an iPhone?

Headphones/Earphones from other manufacturers all work when paired to an iPhone. In fact if you want a superior wireless listening experience, like LDAC according to audiophiles, then you should not buy any version of AirPods. Even better you should not even buy an iPhone because it doesn't support this and has less customizations than equivalent Android phones. Apple isn't reducing the experience of audiophiles, it's basically telling them not to buy their own products.

Where is this so called anticompetitive advantage of AirPods? Most YouTubers describe them as over priced inferior products.

diz_geek 57 comments · 12 Years

About 7 months ago

thedba said:

Correct me if I'm wrong, but do other watches work with an iPhone through an app? If someone wanted a Garmin or a Fitbit, wouldn't that work on an iPhone?

I’ve had Garmins for years and they’ve never had any problem working with my iPhone. Is the integration as seamless as my AW? No, but the Garmins are sports watches with some smart features vs a smart watch with some sports features. Heck, it’s an LCD screen with a few buttons so it couldn’t do all the “smart” things my AW does! But as far as working with the Garmin app on my phone? In the 8 years I’ve been using it, zero problems.

aross99 98 comments · 18 Years

About 7 months ago

avon b7 said:

The problems arise though when manufacturers try to limit accessibility unnaturally to their platforms. That might be a different story. I don't know if that's the case.

Why is this a problem? If you do't like the way the platform works, switch to another platform or just don't buy one.

It's not Apple's job as a company to make it easy for their competitors to integrate with their products. If it makes business sense for them to do so, then they will, if it doesn't then they won't.

If you don't like the way Apple does business, they don't buy their products. It's that simple. Why should Apple have to do anything to help their competitors integrate with their platform? We are talking about a cell phone platform that has at most a 50% market share in the US and less world wide. The alternative platform is fully comparable and 100% a viable solution.

All of these lawsuits are trying to tear down the very things that we Apple users WANT, and are a significant reason why we pay "the Apple tax" as people like to say.

I don't want to be ablate side load apps. I don't want to multiple app stores, and I don't want things like "walmart pay" to junk up my phone and ruin my iPhone experience. We pay a PREMIUM the the privilege of NOT having to deal with these things. I buy iPhones for all of my kids because i DONT want them to have Android phones and have to deal with the privacy and security issues there. If one of my kids wants a Samsung phone that's fine, but they are on their own to buy one.

It that same with Windows. I don't want a Widows PC. Haven't ever bought one and have paid a significant premium for Apple products for 40 years now.

Call me an outlier if you will. but I think I am pretty representative of many Apple users today. They won't even CONSIDER another phone. Why should they? NONE of the things these lawsuits are about are meaningful to them. No one I know cares about side loading, or multiple app stores. Hardly anyone I know even downloads third party software for their Mac's either.

Don't even get me started on iMessage. The whole argument on messaging is ridiculous. Are we really crying over Green bubbles? Do you REALLY want to send SMS messages through What's App? Do you even understand that SMS messages are not secure and can't support large attachments like high resolution images and videos? I know, what about Google's RCS support. Personally, I don't care. Everyone, and I mean EVERYONE that I would send this type of information has an iPhone. I know this isn't true for everyone, but there are so many other options you can use as well. Don't want to use multiple messaging apps? Aren't you already doing that with Facebook messenger, and Instagram DM's, and Twitter/X DM's? Why does this have to be any different.

I get that some people WANT Apples to support Walmart Pay, or Google RCS, or download apps from the Epic App store, or from Joe's Web site, but the vast majority, and I am talking 95% or MORE do NOT want these features. They just don't care. What we DO care about is having these features ruin the platform that we actively sought out and selected because of these features.

Bottom line, if you don't like something Apple does, you are free to complain about it, but don't expect Apple (or any other company) to make changes for things that are not in their best interest. They are a publicly traded company whose primary job is to make money for their shareholders. If you don't like that, then don/t use their products. Don't try to take one f the most successful companies in the world and change it into something that will ultimately ruin the experience the those of us to DO enjoy using their products.

That's the end of my rant.