Apple has continued with its trend of not divulging the sales figures for its Apple Watch. However, researchers have broken the silence and it seems that the technology giant is also the leader for the smartwatch segment. The latest report by Juniper Research claims that Apple accounted for 51.5% of the smartwatch shipments around the world in 2015. So far, Apple has decided to stay mum on the matter, but the news has gained much traction.
The iPhone maker’s decision to not divulge figures placed doubts on Apple Watch’s performance. However, the recent news, which reveals Apple’s better side—at least in terms of its presence in the market—is expected to have surely allayed doubts to an extent. The report estimated that the total smartwatch shipments stood at around 17.1 million, which means Apple shipped about 8.8 million out of the total. Apple’s share, as estimated by Juniper, also matches with the figure provided by Canalys, where it claimed that in November, Apple shipped around 7 million watches.
A large market share is quite impressive, given how the Apple Watch was launched after the first quarter in late April. Meanwhile, the research report also claimed that Android smartwear accounted for just 10% of the total shipments in 2015. It added that Samsung’s new Gear S2 had poor sales since its launch in November. Juniper also claimed that the next big share after Apple went to the cheaper devices from companies—like Razer and Martian—that just offer basic features in their devices.
A possible reason for Apple’s dominance is the availability of useful apps. As per Juniper, by last May, Android devices had about 4,000 apps whereas the Apple Watch had around 10,000 apps. The lack of apps is also likely to be the reason for Android Wear’s failure to cheaper devices that offers basic functions at a very less price.
An important thing to note about the report is that it has not included Fitbit in its research, which is the number one competitor of Apple and is, in fact, considered to be the current leader in the wearable fitness tracking market. The main reason behind this exclusion is the definition of smartwatch, which according to Juniper is a "wrist-based wearable that emulates traditional watch form factors, as well as providing additional digital functionality." Since Fitbit devices mainly fall under the basic segment, they were included in the research.
Another thing worth noting is the research report divulging the number of devices shipped by Apple. This does not necessary correlate to the number of Apple devices actually purchased, which again results in difficulty to reach a valid conclusion.
With such loopholes in research, the claim that Apple is a dominant player in the smartwatch market, may not be authentic. However, even if it does not account for the major share, the fact that Apple Watch has been highly accepted by customers cannot be ignored. The device has gained much traction, in a short span of time. The success of the watch can be judged from Apple’s continuation of the product. In fact, it is likely to announce the second generation watch at an event in March. The new version of the watch is expected to start shipments by April, this year.
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