Apple Dominates Smart Watch Market in First Half of 2020 Thanks to Series 5 Demand

The Apple Watch accounted for 51.4 percent of worldwide smart watch market revenue brought in during the first half of 2020, according to new data shared today by Counterpoint Research.

counterpointapplewatch
Apple has dominated the smart watch market for years now, and the first half of 2020 is no exception. Other smart watch vendors didn't even come close to Apple's smart watch shipment revenue share, with Garmin devices responsible for 9.4 percent of revenue and Huawei devices responsible for 8.3 percent.

Total global smart watch shipments grew 20 percent year over year even amid the pandemic, with Apple's own shipments growing 22 percent. In total, close to 42 million smart watches were shipped in the first half of 2020.

By shipment volume, the Apple Watch Series 5 was the best selling smart watch worldwide in the first half of 2020, followed by the more affordable Apple Watch Series 3. The Huawei Watch GT2 and the Galaxy Watch Active 2 were the number three and four best selling watches, respectively.

"Apple continued to dominate the smartwatch market both in volume and value. Apple captured a record half of the market in terms of revenue due to strong demand for the Apple Watch S5 models. In terms of shipment volumes, Apple Watch grew 22% globally with Europe and North America being the fastest growing markets in the first half of 2020."

Counterpoint Research expects that fall detection and SPO2 will be two key features that will see mass adoption in future smart watch models. Apple has already implemented fall detection, and rumors have suggested that blood oxygen monitoring could be a feature included in the Apple Watch Series 6.

Blood oxygen monitoring would allow the Apple Watch to measure the amount of oxygen in the blood, as this reading can be helpful to know whether to seek immediate medical attention.

Popular Stories

iPhone 16 Battery Life Feature

iOS 26's New Battery Life Mode Available Only on These iPhone Models

Saturday June 21, 2025 9:02 am PDT by
Last week, we reported that iOS 26 introduces an opt-in Adaptive Power Mode on the iPhone, alongside the existing Low Power Mode. Apple says that Adaptive Power Mode can make "small performance adjustments" when necessary to extend an iPhone's battery life, including slightly lowering the display brightness or allowing some activities to "take a little longer." The full description of...
iPhone 17 Pro Blue Feature Tighter Crop

iPhone 17 Pro Launching in Three Months With These 12 New Features

Saturday June 21, 2025 2:45 pm PDT by
The iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are around three months away, and there are plenty of rumors about the devices from credible sources. Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models as of June 2025:Aluminum frame: iPhone 17 Pro models are rumored to have an aluminum frame, whereas the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro models have a titanium frame, and the iPhone X...
All Screen iPhone 2027 Feature 1

iPhone Reportedly Moving to All-Screen Design in Two Stages

Sunday June 22, 2025 3:58 pm PDT by
Apple has long been working towards an iPhone with an all-screen design, and it might finally achieve the feat in a few more years from now. In his Power On newsletter today, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said that Apple will shrink the size of the Dynamic Island on new iPhone models released next year. A year after that, he expects Apple to release a redesigned 20th-anniversary iPhone model....
iPhone 17 Pro Blue Feature Tighter Crop

iPhone 17 Pro's Alleged Vapor Chamber Cooling System Partly Revealed

Sunday June 22, 2025 6:37 am PDT by
Apple's upcoming iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max models are rumored to be equipped with a vapor chamber cooling system, and a leaker known as Majin Bu today shared a photo of an alleged copper thermal plate for the system. Many high-end Android smartphones like Samsung's Galaxy S25 Ultra are equipped with a vapor chamber cooling system, which can manage heat dissipation inside the...
Wi Fi WiFi General Feature

iOS 26 Adding Two New Wi-Fi Features, Allows AirDrop and AirPlay Alternatives

Saturday June 21, 2025 7:02 am PDT by
iOS 26 is gaining two new Wi-Fi features, including Captive Assist and Wi-Fi Aware. MacRumors contributor Aaron Perris discovered a reference to Captive Assist within the code for the first iOS 26 developer beta, but Apple has yet to enable the feature. It should be available by the time the software update is released later this year. In his Power On newsletter last month, Bloomberg's...
iOS 26 on Three iPhones

iOS 26 Includes These Five Smaller Features You Might Have Missed

Saturday June 21, 2025 11:18 am PDT by
While the dust is beginning to settle on the first iOS 26 beta, we continue to take a closer look at new features coming with the update. Below, we recap five smaller changes that you might have missed. Emoji Game Apple News+ subscribers in the U.S. and Canada can play a new Emoji Game, which tasks players with completing words and phrases with emoji. This is the fifth game that is...
iPhone 17 Pro Blue Feature Tighter Crop

iPhone 17 Pro Launching in Three Months With These 12 New Features

Saturday June 14, 2025 5:45 pm PDT by
The iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are three months away, and there are plenty of rumors about the devices. Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models as of June 2025:Aluminum frame: iPhone 17 Pro models are rumored to have an aluminum frame, whereas the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro models have a titanium frame, and the iPhone X through iPhone 14 Pro have a...
apple wallet drivers license feature iPhone 15 pro

iPhone Driver's Licenses: These 17 U.S. States Offer Them or Will Later

Thursday June 19, 2025 11:28 am PDT by
In select U.S. states, residents can add their driver's license or state ID to the Wallet app on the iPhone and Apple Watch, providing a convenient and contactless way to display proof of identity or age at select airports and businesses, and in select apps. Unfortunately, this feature continues to roll out very slowly since it was announced in 2021, with only nine U.S. states and Puerto...
ios 26 control center b2

iOS 26 Beta 2 Fixes Control Center Design

Monday June 23, 2025 10:58 am PDT by
With the second beta of iOS 26 that Apple provided to developers today, Apple addressed one of the major complaints that people have had with Liquid Glass. iOS 26 beta 1 on left, iOS 26 beta 2 on right The Control Center buttons are now slightly more opaque, making it easier to see the different control options even on a multicolored background. The new, more opaque look is apparent with the ...

Top Rated Comments

m4mario Avatar
63 months ago
The doomsday predictors of the Apple Watch has moved on to predict Apple services failure without acknowledging their failure with the Apple Watch predictions.
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)
2010mini Avatar
63 months ago
I remember all the “Apple is doomed” crowd saying the Apple Watch would fail. That it is too expensive and ugly.

Wonder where those people are now???
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
blacktape242 Avatar
63 months ago
I'm surprised Garmin is so low, their watches are really amazing.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
NavySilver Avatar
63 months ago
A quick moment of silence for fitbit, still remember how big they used to be before 2017. Oh and jawbone too.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Scottsoapbox Avatar
63 months ago
Congrats to Garmin growing as well!

Nice to have choices and competition in the space.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
jmgregory1 Avatar
63 months ago
I have my beloved and still perfectly functioning Seiko Automatic sitting on my desk (that I wind every week or so), and thought for years I would never give it up for an Apple Watch. It's been such a fantastic watch for me for just about 20 years that I've owned it. But as I've gotten older, and watched my mother-in-law, sister-in-law and my wife all experience heart related issues, I bit the bullet last November and got my wife and I Watch 5's. Neither of us have gone a day without wearing them and expect we'll be Watch owners for the foreseeable future.

Prior, my wife was even more opposed to getting a Watch than I was, as she's had the same Tag Heuer watch for more than 20 years (although hers requires a new battery every year and service every 2 years - my Seiko has required zero work) and she is not very tech savvy. But she loves the Watch - she does complain that she feels like she can't get away from work because of the Watch, but frankly she can't get away from work because Covid-19 and the increased business her company has experienced, and the Watch is just the messenger.

It's funny, I keep adding new Watch faces, and she'll even comment on how nice some of them look. But when I tell her she can do the same thing, she's like "I don't want anything other than what I use now", which is California. I suppose I just need to grab her iPhone and add some Watch faces, take the initial complaining like a good husband and know that she'll end up liking a different version with more complications once she has it on the Watch.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)