Apple still dominates smartwatch market, sees 51% growth in Q3 sales

Despite speculation of its slowdown and reversal, the smartwatch market is continuing to grow. According to a report released by Strategy Analytics, the smartwatch industry saw a 42% growth in Q3 with Apple (unsurprisingly) leading the charge.

Apple saw a massive 51% year-over-year (YoY) growth in Q3 2019, selling 6.8 million units and continuing its massive sales lead over rivals. That’s thanks in part to the new Apple Watch Series 5, which was released on September 20. Samsung earned silver this past quarter, selling 1.9 million units (up from 1.1 in Q3 2018, a 73% YoY gain). Fitbit claimed third place, increasing sales to 1.6 million units in Q3 2019 from 1.5 million in Q3 2018, a 7% increase. All other manufacturers sold a combined 3.9 million units, a 34% increase from the 2.9 million units collectively sold in Q3 2018.

Apple now accounts for 47.9% of the global smartwatch market. Compared to second-place Samsung’s 13.4% market share, the Cupertino Colossus has a near-stranglehold on smartwatches. The Apple Watch continues to sell like gangbusters in the face of alternative devices from Samsung, Fitbit, Casio, Fossil, and others.

These numbers may shift once Google completes its acquisition of FitBit. Google has a large reserve of capital that it may use to push harder into the smartwatch market. Considering most wearables run either Apple’s watchOS or Samsung’s Tizen software, Google has a lot of ground to make up if Wear OS devices are to claim market dominance.