Top 3 best smartwatch manufacturers. Can you guess who?

The popularity of smartwatches is somehow in waves. At first they are very popular, then no one needs them, and after a while there are queues for them again. I have never been able to explain such fluctuations in demand. There is a slight seasonality in this matter, but it is not so important and does not so much affect the overall demand for watches. Most likely, this is not related to other phenomena and just fluctuates regularly. Now a well-known analytical agency has issued us a new report, which clearly shows which manufacturers of smartwatches are in chocolate, and which … well, you get the idea. This study is interesting because it provides insight into this specific market from a side that few people have thought about.

Smartwatches are convenient, but which one is more convenient than the rest?

Smartwatch market research

The agency I'm talking about is called Counterpoint Research, and it was they who published a new report on the top smartwatch manufacturers by revenue. At first I didn’t want to write about it, but then I discussed the news with several people and realized that they didn’t even know about the state of affairs in the smartwatch market, remembering those brands that are always heard. Among them were Apple, Xiaomi, Huawei, Samsung, FitBit, Amazfit and others, but everything turned out differently. Nobody guessed the top three.

It probably won't surprise anyone that Apple is at the top of the mountain of smartwatch manufacturers with its Apple Watch . The company deservedly occupies a leading position, both in terms of the number of watches sold and how much it earned from them in the first half of 2020. Over the year, its position only strengthened and now instead of 43.2%, it occupies 51.4% of sales.

Apple Watch sells significantly better than other smartwatches.

Sales of smartwatches are certainly lower this year than they could have been due to supply chain and point-of-sale difficulties. At the same time, users have become less interested in this gadget, in contrast to smartphones. Where smartphones showed a drop, smartwatches, on the contrary, were bought much more often than before. After the first quarter, experts explained this by the desire of people to take better care of their health. As a result, many manufacturers increased their sales, but if it were not for the difficulties with production and delivery, the growth would have been even greater.

Смарт-часы на Wear OS ждёт прирост мощности и новых возможностей

Best smartwatches

In the first quarter of last year, Samsung was confidently among the top three , selling 9.3% (second place) of smartwatches in the world, but now its position has noticeably shaken and it stopped at 7.2%, occupying only fourth place. But who removed her from the second position really surprised many.

Garmin ranks second in terms of revenue in the first half of 2020, which has climbed in percentage terms of sales from 8.9% to 9.4% over the year. The growth is not so impressive, but it is, although many do not think about watches of this brand at all.

Smart watch sales summary chart.

Лучшие смарт-часы для плавания

Most of all growth was recorded in Huawei . Last year it sold only 5.5% of smartwatches, and this year it was already 8.3%. Most likely, this growth is largely due to the great popularity of the brand in the home market in China. Immediately after the situation with the coronavirus in this country was taken under control, people began to frantically spend money and buy equipment. That is why for two quarters in a row, contrary to all forecasts, Huawei has been at the top of the ranking of smartphone manufacturers.

So, if you rank the smartwatch by market share in Q2 2020, you get the following result:

• Apple – 51.4%
• Garmin – 9.4%
• Huawei – 8.3%
• Samsung -7.2%
• Xiaomi – 5.1%
• Amazfit – 2.4%
• FitBit – 2.4%
• Fossil – 2.1%
• Others – 11.8%

It turns out that all the other manufacturers combined did not make it to Apple, and if we leave out the category “others”, then companies not from the top three in total earn a little more than the second and third places in total.

Based on the above data, we can conclude that it was Huawei and Apple that made a big leap forward and almost only together brought an increase in revenue growth from the smart watch market, which recently amounted to 20% compared to the same period last year. It is also interesting how the top five best-selling watches look in the first half of this year.

Почему я лучше куплю фитнес-браслет вместо смарт-часов

Best Selling Smart Watches

1. Apple Watch Series 5
2. Apple Watch Series 3 (apparently due to price)
3. Huawei Watch GT2
4. Samsung Galaxy Watch 2
5. Imoo Z3 4G

Strange, isn't it? Everything is logical at Apple – there are two models in the first two positions. K Huawei no questions either. Samsung is also a stretch, but everything is clear. The question is, where is Garmin in this circuit. It turns out that they are taken not because of any particular successful model, but in general because people like them.

The new smartwatch should bring Samsung back to the top of the industry.

Most likely, in the next report Samsung will again return to the top three, as it released a new, albeit quite expensive, watch earlier this month. If they sell well, the rating will change again. And in the fall, they should show the new Apple Watch 6, which may turn out to be even cooler than the Apple Watch Series 5 , and give the company even more growth.

А что выбираете вы? Смарт-часы или фитнесс-трекер? Расскажите об этом .

I wonder what it would be like if the Apple Watch could be used with any phone, not just the iPhone . So far, it turns out that Android users hardly buy smartwatches, if Apple, with its about a fifth of the market share and "exclusive" watches, has occupied more than half of the smartwatch market.