Apple Controls Half of World’s Smartwatch Business

By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Mar 13, 4:31PM EDT · Published Nov 21, 3:30PM EST

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Apple Controls Half of World’s Smartwatch Business — © Apple.com

The smartwatch industry shipped 14 million units in the third quarter. The figure was spread across several manufacturers. However, none was close to Apple, which shipped 48% of the total for the period.
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The smartwatch business is among the fastest-growing consumer electronics sectors in the world. Total smartwatch shipments were up 42% in the third quarter, according to industry tracking firm Strategic Analytics. Steven Waltzer, senior analyst at the research operation, said, “Global smartwatch shipments grew an impressive 42 percent annually from 10.0 million units in Q3 2018 to 14.2 million in Q3 2019. Smartwatch growth continues to soar, as consumers increasingly accessorize their smartphones with fitness-led and health-focused wearables.”

Apple shipped 6.8 million units in the third quarter, up 52% from the period a year ago. The next two companies in terms of shipment were far behind. Samsung units shipped were 1.9 million, up 73%. Fitbit shipped 1.6 million, up 7%. Google will buy Fitbit for $2.1 billion in an effort to enter the smartwatch market.

Smartwatches provide a wide range of functions. As tablet and PC sales slow, they are seen as the next products that will drive top lines at a number of large consumer electronics companies. They are used for a range of functions from health care monitoring to cellular phone devices. One Fitbit product runs Amazon’s Alexa software, which allows consumers to track sleep and fitness data. Other Fitbit products have more basic functions, such as simple fitness tracking.

Apple Watch is now in its fifth generation. The smartwatch tracks fitness and certain heart functions. It also offers access to the 50 million songs in the Apple Music library. It can load a number of apps available at Apple’s App Store.

The scramble for market share among the smartwatch companies will continue. Apple has the advantage of its brand, distributed based of iPhones and a large number of apps that work on its smartwatch. Even consumer electronics giants like Samsung will find it hard to field products and services that could catapult them into the industry lead, or even draw a large market share from Apple.

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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.