Apple lost smartwatch market share to Samsung in Q3
Worldwide smartwatch shipments climbed 16 percent in the third quarter of 2021 compared to the year-ago quarter, according to data from analytics firm Counterpoint Research.
Apple remained the top vendor, but its share fell 10 percent year on year, which can partially be attributed to the fact that the company's latest smartwatch, the Watch Series 7, was released in October. Another apparent reason is that Samsung is now churning out better smartwatches.
Samsung watches had the best quarter ever
The South Korean giant was Q3's biggest winner and managed to grow its shipments significantly. In terms of sales, this was a record-breaking quarter for the company. It unseated Huawei as the second-largest vendor and narrowed the gap with Apple.
This appears to imply that this year's Galaxy Watch 4 series, which is the first to run the Wear OS platform that has been co-developed by Samsung and Google and offers a body fat percentage calculating sensor, is doing exceptionally well, but Counterpoint is quick to note that more than 60 percent of the sales volume came from North America and Europe, where mid-to-high price range models are the most popular.
To gain more market share -- particularly in Asia-- the company allegedly plans on launching affordable watch models within two to three years. For perspective, around a third of smartwatches that were sold in Q3 2021 cost less than $100.
Samsung will likely face fierce competition from lesser-known brands like Noise and boAt, which were the first and second in the Indian market, and doubled their sales from the previous quarter.
Now that Samsung's new watches run Wear OS and not Tizen, it's not surprising to see that the former's share grew to 17 percent from 3 percent in Q3 2020. Apple Watch OS share dropped to 22 percent from 28 percent.
Moving on, Amazfit was the third-largest watch vendor in Q3, thanks to the brand's increasing popularity in Europe. BBK Electronics-owned Imoo was the fourth most popular watchmaker during the quarter and Huawei was the fifth.
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