The smartwatch market grew by 20% in the first half of 2020, driven by devices from Huawei, Garmin and Apple

The smartwatch market has not been affected by the general downturn that has affected other device categories such as smartphones. This is in accordance with a new report from Counterpoint, a group that has found the sector for these wearables had grown by 20% in 1H2020. It also saw shipments of approximately 42 million units for the same period.

The market leader in this case has not changed, however: Apple still takes the #1 spot, having increased its share to 51.4% compared to 43.2% in 1H2019. Garmin rose to second place with 9.4% of the market, and Huawei is now next in the rankings with 8.5%. It made a 57% year-on-year (YoY) gain to get there, whereas Samsung was knocked out of its 1H2019 #2 position into fourth for the same half of 2020.

The rest of the individual brands with significant chunks of the smartwatch market included Amazfit, Fitbit and Fossil. Counterpoint noted that Garmin's success was due to a 31% YoY increase in demand for its Forerunner and Fenix series, whereas Huawei's success was mainly attributed to enthusiasm for the Watch GT 2, especially in Asian markets. Apple, on the other hand, seemed to mostly base its lead on the strength of the Watch 5.

On that note, India saw the greatest YoY growth (57%) in the 1H2020 smartwatch market when broken down by region. Europe also exhibited good gains, as did the US (9% and 5% YoY respectively), despite the economic impact exerted by Covid-19. In terms of smartwatch software, WearOS was found to have retained its approximate 10% share of the global market, although obviously watchOS had much more. However, other platforms such as LiteOS and Amazfit OS are encroaching on them with speed.