Apple Watch Posts Lower Worldwide Shipments, But Still Leads Smartwatch Market

According to the newest report from IDC, Apple’s one and only wearable device (so far) may have registered significantly decreasing shipments worldwide for the second quarter of this year, but it still managed to remain the undisputed leader in the global smartwatch market. Indeed, Apple Watch shipments slid to 1.6 million units during the most recent quarter of 2016, dropping from 3.6 million units during the period one year ago. Apple’s smartwatch also saw its market share shrink from 72 percent to 47 percent. And despite leading the smartwatch market, it is the only among the top five smartwatch brands to post a decrease in terms of year over year shipment volume.

As expected, the second place is taken by Apple’s fierce rival Samsung, whose smartwatch shipments improved from 400,000 units a year ago to 600,000 units this year. On top of that, the South Korean tech giant also saw its smartwatch market share rise from 7 percent the previous year to 16 percent this year. 

On third place is China’s Lenovo, which registered smartwatch shipments of 300,000 units. Rounding off the fourth place and fifth place is LG (with 300,000 units shipped) and Garmin (with 100,000 units shipped), respectively.

Decreasing sales for its smartwatch is not something the Apple can be too proud of, but it can take comfort in the fact that the Apple Watch remains the most popular representative of the global smartwatch market. Simply put, the appeal and popularity of the Apple Watch has done so much in helping draw attention to other manufacturers of smartwatches and other wearable devices. 

Unfortunately, despite the growing acceptance of smartwatches, many people still do not treat these devices as essential gadgets for everyday use, just like smartphones and tablet devices. Still, the industry and tech enthusiasts are hoping that the next generation of smartwatch devices will finally offer enough in terms of features, functionalities, and applications to become truly mainstream products.

As the face of the smartwatch industry, the Apple Watch could not be more suited. First of all, any product that bears the Apple branding automatically has a better chance of becoming a hit. Couple that with Apple’s extensive resources in terms of marketing and promotions, it is a good bet that the Apple Watch will never lack in visibility. And we have not talked about the technology yet -- and somebody as mighty as Apple has proven that its technical expertise more than lives up to the hype.