Whereas the telephone market is in a decline proper now, there aren’t any such points with wearables. In keeping with the newest figures from Counterpoint, international smartwatch gross sales elevated by 12% year-on-year in 2022, with high-end merchandise — retailing for over $400 — seeing a staggering 129% improve over 2021.
The entry-level sub-$100 class additionally noticed a modest improve, however the remainder of the sphere shrunk because the market consolidated across the price range and high-end. North America was as soon as once more the most important wearable market, seeing an honest 6% uptick in gross sales over the course of 2022, with India now in second with an enormous 151% YoY improve.
Samsung is in second with a 9.8% international market share, and whereas the South Korean producer noticed a gross sales improve of 12% — little doubt because of the launch of the Galaxy Watch 5 Professional — general income was up by simply 0.5% in 2022. That is just like what the model is seeing within the telephone section, with Samsung recording its lowest earnings in eight years in This autumn 2022.
Whereas Samsung hasn’t moved the needle an excessive amount of, Apple continues to increase its lead within the wearable section. The model is as soon as once more the main wearable producer on this planet, and it netted 50 million gross sales for the primary time in 2022, a rise of 17%. Whereas it has a 34.8% market share, it picked up an astonishing 60% of the general income, and that is right down to the positioning of its smartwatches.
I am under no circumstances stunned by these figures; the Apple Watch is the one smartwatch I used with any quantity of regularity within the final 4 years, and its largest promoting level is the software program ecosystem. I used a half-dozen Android smartwatches earlier than making the change to the Apple Watch, and I used to be continuously pissed off by Put on OS’s foibles; the wearables I used had been both vulnerable to lag, had lackluster designs, or suffered from poor battery life.
Though Google made amends with Put on OS 3, the Apple Watch has an amazing lead on this section, and that is unlikely to vary. I used the Apple Watch Collection 8 for the higher a part of 4 months now, and whereas it does not differ an excessive amount of from its predecessor, it has the options I truly use.
Take health, as an example. I began being extra lively over the course of the pandemic, and used the Apple Watch to watch exercises and energy burned. What made the most important distinction was the social capabilities; it is simple to problem family and friends, and the one occasions I pushed myself to get on the train bike and shut these infernal rings was after I obtained a notification that my sister did the identical — sibling rivalry is a giant motivator.
The seamless integration with the companies I take advantage of mixed with a slate of fantastic first-party apps is why I proceed to make use of the Apple Watch, and with Apple introducing the $799 Watch Extremely, it isn’t onerous to see why the model picked up an outsized share of the general income in 2022.
Switching gears to the price range section, the meteoric rise in gross sales in India is right down to native gamers providing health bands and smartwatches for below $100, with manufacturers like Noise making plenty of noise (I simply needed to). By undercutting Xiaomi and Huawei by a major margin, Noise was capable of swiftly stand up the ranks in India, and though it sells in only one nation, it’s now the fourth-largest wearable model on this planet.
On that observe, Xiaomi slid right down to eleventh within the rankings, and whereas the model continues to make the most effective price range health bands — the Mi Band 7 is my advice if you’d like a wearable for below $100 — it wasn’t capable of make any headway in China or India. Equally, Fitbit noticed its market share decline in North America, and the model is now in tenth place globally.
It is seemingly the momentum will proceed over the course of 2023, and we’ll have to attend and see if this yr’s Android smartwatches can problem the dominance of the Apple Watch.
