The wearable market as a whole grew 5.6 percent in the last quarter, largely due to the sale of smartwatches at the expense of basebands, according to research company Canalys. The push was driven by Apple, which continues to dominate the market with its watch models.
As Canalys noted, smartwatch sales took over the base of basebands (sports bands, etc.) as early as the fourth quarter of 2020 and now account for 62 percent of all wearable band shipments. Apple now accounts for 31.1 percent of the smartwatch market and 19.3 percent of the wearable band market as a whole, second only to Xiaomi in terms of number of shipments.
Samsung’s Galaxy Watch 4
Engadget
Samsung also grew its smartwatch shipments year-on-year by 114 percent and saw further successes with its latest Galaxy Watch 4, which is now based on Wear OS 3 and was developed jointly with Google. Fitbit saw smartwatches grow 20.6 percent over sales around this time last year, powered by its Versa 2 and Sense models.
In the basic band arena, Xiaomi now leads sales with a share of 19.6 percent – just ahead of Apple – led by its Mi Smart Band 5 and 6 models. However, these products are significantly cheaper, with retail prices of around $ 35 and $ 55, respectively.
Overall, regardless of the product category, consumers are most interested in their health. “Health tracking is the most popular use case for smartwatches,” says Jason Low of Canalys. “The ability to deliver cutting-edge health tracking capabilities and deliver meaningful data and actionable health insights to users will distinguish winners and losers.”
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