Apple Watch Remains Nearly Three Times as Popular as Samsung Smartwatches

[MacRumors]

The latest data from market research firm IDC reveals that Apple Watch sales totaled an estimated 1.6 million units in the second quarter, for an industry leading 47 percent market share, compared to Samsung's estimated 600,000 smartwatch sales and 16 percent market share during the March-June period.

The numbers suggest that the Apple Watch remains nearly three times as popular as Samsung Gear smartwatches, nearly fifteen months after launching in the U.S. and eight other countries. Nevertheless, Samsung did close the gap with strong 51 percent year-over-year growth and a 9 point rise in market share.

Apple, meanwhile, experienced a 55 percent year-over-year decline, but the year-ago quarter encompassed the Apple Watch's launch and is thereby an unfair comparison. Apple Watch market share has dropped substantially, however, from an estimated peak of 72 to 75 percent following its launch quarter.

Despite a down quarter, Apple remains far and away the market leader in smartwatches. Apple faces the same challenges as other OEMs, but the pure exposure of the device and brand through tactical marketing gives it a leg up on the competition. Watch 2.0, along with updates to watchOS, could help drive existing user refresh and more importantly, a new wave of first-time buyers.

The overall smartwatch market experienced its first-ever decline as shipments fell 32 percent in the second quarter, totaling an estimated 3.5 million units compared to an estimated 5.1 million units in the year-ago quarter. Lenovo, LG, and Garmin rounded off the top five smartwatch vendors in the second quarter, but the trio combined to sell only 700,000 units. All other vendors sold a combined 600,000 units.

KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said the so-called Apple Watch 2 will debut in the third quarter, setting the stage for a possible launch alongside the next iPhone in September. The next-generation Apple Watch could feature a FaceTime video camera, expanded Wi-Fi capabilities, cellular connectivity, and other internal upgrades, while new models and bands are always possibilities.

Article Link: Apple Watch Remains Nearly Three Times as Popular as Samsung Smartwatches

 

[Aathroser]

Considering I see Apple Watches on celebrities and people on the street and very very rarely see other smart watches (not counting Pebble/fitbit), this is not surprising at all.

 

[Mercifull]

Not really surprising. Smart watches are gimmick devices. It's no wonder more Apple fans buy into this sort of thing. I say this as a AW wearer.

 

[Stella]

Health bands and smartwatches are converging. Smartwatches in some form have a future.

Issue with AppleWatch and others - they try to do too much.

 

[ArtOfWarfare]

Why are the Samsung smartwatches all circular?

The only reason to make your watch a circle is because it's an analog device... my digital watches have a much more rectangular shape, closer to that of an Apple Watch. There's nothing about your wrist that makes a circle a better usage of space.

My wife told me two days ago that she's thinking about getting an Apple Watch for the fitness features. I'm the nerd. Not her. She's more interested in it than I am. Which suggests that Apple is probably doing something right.

 

[Benzy]

Apple Watch Remains Nearly Three Times as Popular as

It used to be the same case for iPhones, until Apple refused to do everything Android did: large screen real-estate, control panel, OLED, SD card slot etc. Now who's playing catch-up?

 

[John Mcgregor]

I personally have not seen one person with a smartwatch. Not even in the gym.
[doublepost=1469108632][/doublepost]

Why are the Samsung smartwatches all circular?

The only reason to make your watch a circle is because it's an analog device... my digital watches have a much more rectangular shape, closer to that of an Apple Watch. There's nothing about your wrist that makes a circle a better usage of space.

My wife told me two days ago that she's thinking about getting an Apple Watch for the fitness features. I'm the nerd. Not her. She's more interested in it than I am. Which suggests that Apple is probably doing something right.

It's the aesthetics. Usability is **** either way.

 

[Mac 128]

Considering I see Apple Watches on celebrities and people on the street and very very rarely see other smart watches (not counting Pebble/fitbit), this is not surprising at all.

Woohoo, they dominate a market segment nobody cares about.

However, your anectdotal evidence doesn't pan out to even this study -- Apple still only has a 47% market share against all smart watches sold. All other smart watches therefore make up a 53% share. Which means, you shouldn't be seeing more Watches than any other kind, but at least in equal numbers.

Most of what you're seeing has likely always been there over the past year when Apple dominated the market with 72%, you're just now making a point to notice whether people are wearing them or not. And that's why anectdotal evidence doesn't really work for any kind of serious analysis ...

 

[Freida]

Health bands and smartwatches are converging. Smartwatches in some form have a future.

Issue with AppleWatch and others - they try to do too much.

Interesting! I see it as they don't do enough.
I think smartwatches are here to stay and they will play major role in our lives one day as pretty much your own personal doctor + more. But for now its just very early stage and to me they don't do anything truly important. HR reading is often inaccurate, oxygen etc. is not measured yet and other things are just gimmick for now.
Notification? Nice but gimmicky. Killer feature or progress is needed but to be fair I will probably get the AW2.
There has to be progress so we still need to buy it

I think future will be really cool one day but now this is just beginning.

P.s.: Look at what Elon (Tesla) just announced on his website. Master plan part 2

 

[BlueMoon63]

Funny thing about the news release is that yesterday there was positive news about the sales of the Apple Watch and haters said "this is speculation since Apple doesn't mention sales " - this news release will have them posting as fact and that they "knew it" and nobody cares and smart watches are dumb and no one wants them and these numbers prove it. Lol

 

[GenesisST]

Why are the Samsung smartwatches all circular?

The only reason to make your watch a circle is because it's an analog device... my digital watches have a much more rectangular shape, closer to that of an Apple Watch. There's nothing about your wrist that makes a circle a better usage of space.

My wife told me two days ago that she's thinking about getting an Apple Watch for the fitness features. I'm the nerd. Not her. She's more interested in it than I am. Which suggests that Apple is probably doing something right.

My cousin-in-law has one that isn't round. I thought it was a Samsung, maybe it wasn't. It was actually pretty neat.

EDIT: It was this one: http://www.samsung.com/ca/consumer/mobile-devices/wearables/gear/SM-R750WZKAXAC

 

[Mac 128]

Why are the Samsung smartwatches all circular?

The only reason to make your watch a circle is because it's an analog device... my digital watches have a much more rectangular shape, closer to that of an Apple Watch. There's nothing about your wrist that makes a circle a better usage of space.

My wife told me two days ago that she's thinking about getting an Apple Watch for the fitness features. I'm the nerd. Not her. She's more interested in it than I am. Which suggests that Apple is probably doing something right.

Most smart watches besides Apple are round. Since the initial hype is over and those watches account for over 53% of the entire smart watch market, I'd say Apple had better keep its options open. Function isn't the sole consideration for a product people wear. Never has been.

 

[sputnikv]

imagine once watch os3 comes out and potentially the next generation watch

 

[2457282]

Where is the pebble? In the other category? I assume pebble falls into the smartwatch category and that they are still doing well, but based on this report, my ass-umptions may be off.

 

[vooke]

Wish we had some sort of geographical distribution for these sales

 

[ChrisCW11]

Well, -55% growth is nothing to brag about, as too is bragging about selling more of a product in a **** market nobody cares about. It is obvious consumers are apathetic towards smartwatches, most are smart enough not to spend $500+ on a glorified Casio digital watch.

 

[ColdShadow]

and equally useless.

 

[TouchMint.com]

I feel like if Pokemon go made a companion app. There would be a visible shift in apple watches and even Samsung. This one game could literally change the smart watch market.

 

[thekeyring]

That's great. I'm amazed how many people I see wearing them, considering it's a first-gen product "nobody wanted". They're not all going to die-hard Apple fans.

I think the worst thing about the watch was it's original introduction - the selling point was unclear. How hard would it have been to say something along the lines of

"Apple Watch a health and fitness device. For the best results, we can't add health and fitness hardware to your iPhone, it has to be a dedicated device that's constantly on your wrist.

"If you're going to wear it all day, every day, it needs to look great, reflect your style and taste, and be customisable.

"And, if you're wearing this on your wrist, it's the perfect device to receive notifications. Answer a call, respond to a message, or check send your heartbeat to a friend."

 

[deusx]

At least they lead in one market, which amounts to the 2.5Bn $ of their 50Bn $ income, despite their sales in total dropped 30% since last year and despite Samsung sold almost double the amount of phones (81M vs 51M) where mobile phones is their main market. But sure they are first in something, so let's drink to that!

 

[Winni]

I personally have not seen one person with a smartwatch. Not even in the gym.

My personal count hasn't changed one bit over the last months. I still have one colleague in Germany with a Sony smart watch and one colleague in the UK with an Apple Watch. I never see anyone with a smart watch on the ICE or in the streets. "Real" watches, and by that I mean expensive ones, I see way more often than those useless smart watch gadgets.

 

[JoeyEatWorld]

I have an Apple Watch and a Samsung Gear S2. I see a lot of websites that "rank" the Gear S2 above the Apple Watch. I attribute this mostly to people refusing to acknowledge Apple as having a superior product.

I have had the Apple Watch since launch day last April and wore it every day for over a year. I got the Gear S2 about 3 months ago and have used it nearly everyday, so I feel I have a pretty good gauge how the two watches truly compare.

It is night and day different, the Apple Watch is hands down better. It is always buggy, often apps will crash, and overall I'm just unimpressed with the Gear S2. It seriously blows my mind when I see websites trash on the Apple Watch but talk about how great the S2 is.

Here's my recent adventure using the S2: I decide to reply to a text message on my watch. Siri has its faults on replies on an Apple Watch, but the S Voice on the Gear S2 I find is actually way less reliable. So I tend to reply via the on screen keyboard. I want to text back, "Thanks man, I'll see you later." It's a simple phrase. I have normal sized fingers so this should be easy, right? Nope. Could not get the words typed, and by the time I kept trying to retype a word the whole message app crashes, then proceeds to change my watch face to a totally different design and I cannot use the watch for about 10 seconds due to lag and crashes. The whole process takes me about 2 minutes. Total waste of time, I could have sent multiple texts on my phone in that time.

Gear Adventure #2: I'm getting ready to drive around while visiting Chicago and am trying to use my watch to mimic my Google Maps app on my Galaxy Note 5. After messing with it for about 5 minutes I cannot get the directions to synch up with my phone, the app proceeds to be super laggy, crashes, then resets my watch face. I try this process 2 more times with the exact same results.

These are not isolated events. These happen to me at least once a week. Now smart watches are a relatively new technology, so I don't expect perfect results every time. But come on, this happens way too frequently. In all my time using the Apple Watch I never had any issues remotely close to how awful the Gear S2 is in comparison.

Sure, you can write your hipster article all you want ranking the Gear S2 over the Apple Watch. But the fact is with my experiences, mixed with the fact that the Apple Watch is infinitely more customizeable, there is no way on Earth the Gear S2 is as good as the Apple Watch.

 

[Daws001]

If I were Apple, I would visit the offices of whoever is in charge of Pokémon Go and offer them buckets of money to make a Pokémon Go app for Apple Watch. Notifies you of nearby Pokemons w/o having to have your phone out 24/7. Maybe some other fancy stuff.

Then Tim Cook can sit back, watch Apple Watch sales explode, and cackle maniacally as he takes over Earth.

 

[djcerla]

Basic difference: Apple sells watches, while Samsung mostly gives them away with TVs, smartphones and dish washers.

 

[Grahamps]

I personally have not seen one person with a smartwatch. Not even in the gym

I've said this before: In Atlanta, the Apple Watch is pretty common. I see it worn by all sorts of people, including folks for whom the price doesn't seem to match their job's income, i.e. clerks, gas station employees, etc.. I notice the Apple Watch the most, probably Fitbits and trackers as often or more, and a smattering of other "wearables" from time to time.