Year 2015 was the time when the smartwatch industry started to flourish. After Google introduced the Android Wear the previous year, a lot of OEMs jumped into the bandwagon. Apple soon introduced the Apple Watch which further divided the market. This year, we know companies will be focusing on virtual reality but wearables will continue to improve and be sold. Strategy Analytics recently released research findings that said shipments of smartwatch grew more than twice. The industry saw a 223% increase worldwide from last year.
In Q1, the number of units shipped has hit 4.2 million. Even if Android Wear was introduced first, the Apple Watch got 52% of the global smartwatch marketshare. That’s higher than the competition but already lower than the previous quarter when it was at 63%.
The previous year started with 1.3 million units of smartwatch shipments (Q1 2015) and grew to 4.2 million last quarter (Q1 2016). That’s a big achievement for the whole smartwatch industry that is driven by Apple, Android Wear, and Tizen not only in the US but across Asia, North America, and Western Europe. Well, that sounds like good news but unfortunately, numbers were even higher in the last quarter of 2015 at 8.1 million units. Main reason was seasonality trends. Q4 was holiday season when all promos and discounts were given.
According to Strategy Analytics’ Executive Director Neil Mawston, Apple is estimated to have shipped 2.2 million units while Samsung shipped only 600k smartwatches. The remaining numbers are Android Wear-powered units from different manufacturers like Motorola, LG, and Huawei among others.
So Apple quickly became king when it comes to the smartwatch arena. It’s not as stable but now that it has established it’s place, maybe it’s about time the Cupertino company release a follow up model. We’ll see if the Apple Watch 2 can be considered better than Android Wear or Tizen-powered smartwatches because honestly, there’s not much you can do with the Apple Watch platform, or at least, not yet. We’re more interested in Android Wear not just because we’re part of the Android community but because the Android team knows customization best.
SOURCE: Strategy Analytics
