It may not exactly be surprising news, but it is another heartening development for Apple nonetheless; the Apple Watch continued to easily outsell its competitors in the global smartwatch market during 2021, racking up a 30.1% market share.
The figures, released by global industry analysis firm Counterpoint, showed Samsung in a distant second place among the world’s leading smartwatch brands as measured by shipments, with a 10.2% share. Chinese firm Huawei’s 7.7% share of the international market was enough to give it third position.
It wasn’t all ‘plain sailing’ for Apple Watch sales in 2021 – heightened competition in the wearables sector meant Apple’s share fell by about three percentage points compared to its figure for 2020.
But we doubt Cupertino executives will be losing too much sleep over that, particularly given that Apple’s average selling price for the Apple Watch also went up by 3% year-on-year in the absence of an Apple Watch SE update. That increase enabled the company to account for half of the total market revenue for 2021.
Smartwatch shipments around the globe rose by 24% in 2021 from the situation a year before, when the market was almost static due to the disruption brought by COVID-19.
Sujeong Lim, Associate Director at Counterpoint, stated: “The global smartwatch market’s good growth in 2021 is meaningful in itself, but it is more meaningful in that it makes us look forward to future growth.
“With their ability to monitor important health parameters like blood pressure, ECG and SPO2, these devices are becoming popular. Further, the attractiveness of smartwatches as independent wearable devices will increase if more of them start supporting cellular connectivity.”
