According to the results of Q1’22, Apple has already become a leader in smartphone, tablet, wireless headphones and smart speaker markets. Now new data shows that the company also ranks first in the lucrative smartwatch market.
IDC analyst Francisco Jeronimo shared a small infographic about the world’s most popular smartwatch in the first quarter of the year, and it came as no surprise that Apple completely dominated the rankings. The Apple Watch Series 7, the brand’s most expensive smartwatch with a starting price of $399 (in the US), became the best-selling watch in the world between January and March 2022.
Early rumors indicated a complete redesign using flat edges, but the final design of the Apple Watch Series 7 showed modest changes compared to the Series 6, combining the same overall look with a larger screen and thinner bezels. However, as the list of smartwatch sales shows, the lack of change does not seem to have affected demand. In fact, Apple’s position in the smartwatch market remains extremely strong.
The second most popular smartwatch in the world in the first quarter was another Apple Watch! Apple Watch SE is approaching its second anniversary, but the price of $279 is of interest to buyers. The model offers a great design of Apple Watch Series 4-6, but without some premium features such as ECG support. For most buyers, this is more than enough, hence its popularity.
Sales are expected to remain stable in the coming months, as competitors have had few launches recently, but sales of the current generation Apple Watch SE should end in September, when Apple is rumored to release a second generation version. There are few details about what this device will include, although it will likely offer the same design as the current model, with an improved chipset and some additional features.
While the Apple Watch Series 7 and Watch SE accounted for most of Apple’s smartwatch sales, the cheaper (and much older) Series 3 ultimately helped boost the brand’s market share to an outstanding 51.2% in the first quarter of 2022.
The Apple Watch Series 3 retails for $199 and was released in 2017. The fact that they are almost five years old means that they are rarely recommended these days, but they are still quite popular. However, Series 3 is soon to be gone for good. Although this series is still on sale, Apple will not support it with software updates anymore. It will not receive the new watchOS 9, introduced last week.
As for the other places in the Top-5, they were taken by Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 and Watch 4 Classic – the company’s first watches running on the updated Wear OS platform from Google. These two smartwatches were popular enough to provide Samsung with a combined market share of 18.9%, indicating strong growth compared to the first quarter of 2020, when the brand was still supplying Tizen-based smartwatches. Recent market data show that Samsung has made the right decision by replacing Tizen with Wear OS. And as the company is currently working on the next-generation Galaxy Watch 5 and Watch 5 Pro, this momentum should continue in the second half of 2022 and beyond.
Next to Samsung in terms of total sales are Garmin with a market share of 7.2% and Huawei with a share of 4.5%. Fitbit, owned by Google, took fifth place in the overall ranking with a share of 3.6%, although it will be interesting to see how this will change when the Pixel Watch arrives on store shelves this fall.
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