The global Smartwatch shipment experienced 48percent Year in Year growth in the first quarter of 2019 with topnine brands contributing 75percent of the market shipment.
Out of the top nine brands, Apple tops the chat with a wide margin of 35.8percent, followed by Samsung 11.1percent.
Other brands in the chat as highlighted by the latest research from Counterpoint Research are Imoo 9.2 percent, Fitbit 5.7percent, Amazfit 3.7 percent, Huawei 2.8 percent, Fossil 2.5percent, Garmin 1.5, while other brands cumulatively contribute 27.9percent.
Why Apple lead?
According toCounterpoint Research Analyst, Satyajit Sinha, Apple continued to lead ahead of other brands because of its focus on the health-related features like ECG and fall detection in the Apple Watch Series 4. “The ECG capability in the Apple Watch is the most desirable feature, according to our latest Consumer Lens survey. Apple has now received approval on its ECG features from healthcare authorities of Hong Kong and 19 other countries, including France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the UK,” he said.
Sinha, further added, “The heart rate sensor for health monitoring, GPS and pedometer sensors for fitness, and NFC embedded for payment are some of the key integrated technologies.
Other brands
Commenting on other vendors’ performance, Senior Analyst, Sujeong Lim, noted, “Samsung grew exponentially at 127% YoY as the Korean brand’s market share jumped to 11% in Q1 2019. Its success was due to the latest Galaxy watch series which came with better battery life as well as a very traditional round clockface design. Further, it provides cellular LTE connectivity which gives it an edge over others targeting Android-based smartphone users. It is a great alternative to the Apple Watch for Android and Samsung’s huge installed base of users.”
Huawei’s market share jumped to 3% in Q1 2019 due to good traction for its latest Huawei Watch GT. The striking design, affordability, leveraging the growing ‘Huawei’ brand mindshare, and the smartphone user base is driving demand. Further, Huawei has shifted focus to sell more Huawei branded smartwatches whereas the smart bands are selling well under its HONOR brand.
Innovation
Commenting on innovation across the smart wearables segment, Associate Director, Brady Wang, noted, “Foldable displays are coming to smartwatches. Nubia’s attempt to design “smartphone + smartwatch” adds smartphone level capability to the wrist form-factor. The UI of Nubia Alpha comes with features like gesture control, shortcuts with image capture, and moving through apps. This makes the smartwatch versatile and user-friendly. However, we are still in nascent stages in the evolution of smartwatch form-factors. These new form-factors will need to excel on various metrics. They need to be less bulky, ruggedized but stylish and also possess a less fragmented software/UI which at the same time is also intuitive. We estimate flexible smartwatches will hit mainstream post-2025.“