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.

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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.

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Top Rated Comments

m4mario Avatar
70 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
70 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
70 months ago
I'm surprised Garmin is so low, their watches are really amazing.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
NavySilver Avatar
70 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
70 months ago
Congrats to Garmin growing as well!

Nice to have choices and competition in the space.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
jmgregory1 Avatar
70 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)