According to market data from Counterpoint Research, Apple shipped 12.9 million models of the Apple Watch Series 6 and Apple Watch SE in the fourth quarter of 2020.
The market saw an overall decline in smartwatch shipments compared to last year due to the ongoing global health crisis. Apple, however, saw a 19% increase in shipments YoY. Apple was the single largest smartwatch maker in Q4 of 2019 when it controlled 34% of the market. In the final quarter of last year, Apple Watch models accounted for 40% of the market share.
Apple's market share consolidation can be attributed to the new Apple Watch SE's success, the mid-range Apple Watch option. Apple released the SE model alongside its flagship Series 6 at a lower $279 price point, with some caveats such as the lack of an always-on display, ECG functionality, and the faster S6 processor.
Counterpoint senior analyst Sujeong Lim says that the new mid-range Apple Watch SE will likely push Samsung and other smartwatch makers to create similar, mid-range options for customers looking for cheaper alternatives to main flagships.
Saturday April 11, 2026 9:14 am PDT by Joe Rossignol
Last year, Apple launched CarPlay Ultra, the long-awaited next-generation version of its CarPlay software system for vehicles. Nearly a year later, CarPlay Ultra is still limited to Aston Martin's latest luxury vehicles, but that should change fairly soon.
In May 2025, Apple said many other vehicle brands planned to offer CarPlay Ultra, including Hyundai, Kia, and Genesis.
CarPlay Ultra...
As we wait for WWDC to kick off next Monday, Apple today announced the winners of its annual Apple Design Awards, recognizing apps and games for their innovation, ingenuity, and technical achievement.
The 2025 Apple Design Award winners are listed below, with one app and one game selected per category:
Delight and Fun - CapWords (App) and Balatro (Game)
Innovation - Play (App) and PBJ -...
Saturday April 11, 2026 9:07 am PDT by Joe Rossignol
While the AirPods Max 2 received more attention, Apple also released a second pair of headphones last month: Nike Powerbeats Pro 2.
Nike Powerbeats Pro 2 are the same as the regular Powerbeats Pro 2, except they have a two-tone design consisting of black and Nike's signature Volt neon green-yellow color. The headphones were released on March 20 in the U.S., Canada, Australia, the U.K., and a ...
Thursday March 26, 2026 11:12 am PDT by Joe Rossignol
In addition to indicating that a new full-sized HomePod is in the works, and that the foldable iPhone will likely ship later than the iPhone 18 Pro models this year, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman today said he does not expect any major design changes for the next-generation Apple Watch models coming later this year.
Gurman revealed all of this information in a live Q&A call today on the Bloomberg...
Tuesday March 24, 2026 10:02 am PDT by Juli Clover
Apple today released watchOS 26.4, the fourth major update to the watchOS 26 operating system that came out in September. watchOS 26.4 comes a month and a half after Apple released watchOS 26.3.
watchOS 26.4 can be downloaded for free on an iPhone running iOS 26.4 by opening up the Apple Watch app and going to General > Software Update, or initiating an update in the Settings app on the...
Apple saw a 23% year-over-year increase in iPhone sales in China during the first nine weeks of 2026, significantly outperforming a broader market decline driven by weak demand and rising component costs, according to Counterpoint Research.
China smartphone sales apparently fell by 4% year-over-year in the first nine weeks of 2026. Within this environment, Apple emerged as the...
“Second largest” after “Others”??? How about an edit to correct this. “Others” is only a grab-bag of all the other unidentified manufacturers - Apple was the largest by a huge margin.
This is the forum thread ('https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/apple-announces-apple-watch-available-in-early-2015-from-349.1773623/') on the day the Apple Watch was first announced in September 2014.
Here's a couple of examples of the characteristic MacRumors' forum optimism about new Apple products:
One miniaturisation too far. A white elephant. Look for them in eBay in a year. Do you want to be "That Knob With The Apple Watch Over There?" And by 'Knob' we aren't referring to The Digital Crown here, readers.
While I have never been a watch person, I was surprised at how quickly I got used to using the AW. I now feel kind of naked when I am not wearing it.
One thing I hate about the AW, is the handling of SW updates and the small storage size. I cannot update the OS due to not having enough free space. I tried deleting everything that was optional to delete, and I still couldn't free up enough space to do the update.
It appears that if I unpair and reset the watch, I can do the update, but this is a pretty crappy way of handling SW updates.
Overall, I am happy with it, but the SW update issues are quite annoying.
Apple's sudden overtaking of the market can be attributed to the new Apple Watch SE's success, the mid-range Apple Watch option. Apple released the SE model alongside its flagship Series 6 at a lower $279 price point, with some caveats such as the lack of an always-on display, ECG functionality, and the faster S6 processor.
The rest of the tech industry could be in some serious trouble if apple keep releasing these mid range products with flagship processors.
Basically, they were able to sell some only once they cheapened the product with less features and quality. Anyone who uses Android can now use Fitbit which actually has more battery life and is an actual health device. I feel that Fitness+ should be brought to anti-trust by other fitness apps just like Spotify vs Apple.
This is precisely what I was talking about in the other thread.
In what bizarro world is a great user experience for the customer, made possible by Apple's tight integration between hardware, software and services, suddenly a sign of monopolistic behaviour by Apple?
