Apple Watch sales grew in 2021, Counterpoint data shows

Counterpoint 2020-2021 smartwatch market data sees Apple as lead

While I’ll always think Apple’s ‘most personal product’ should be made available in multiple designs, it’s no surprise at all that its Apple Watch is the biggest-selling smartwatch in the industry. It’s a superior product, after all.

Apple wraps itself around more wrists

We know the iPhone has hundreds of millions of users and that the number of those who also own an Apple Watch remains relatively small, which gives the company a huge opportunity to convince consumers to purchase one.

Positive data such as recent news from Australian health insurer AIA the claimed people using an Apple Watch move as much as 51% more than they did before may help.

That market opportunity remains, but even within the constraint of the product requiring you to own an iPhone to make use of it, Apple still managed to grab c.30.1% of the smartwatch market in 2021.

This is  down slightly on the ‘workout at home’ 32.9% share it grabbed in 2020, but remains way ahead of the industry, and I doubt Apple is concerned.

It isn’t concerned because it knows sales grew quite strongly, as despite losing a few clicks of market share the overall market expanded by 24% — which means Apple may have lost relative share but grabbed a lot more sales overall. It lost c.8% share in a market that grew 24%, which means it still saw growth.

[Also read: How make Apple Watch stats better during Workouts]

Workout culture

The world according to Counterpoint

Counterpoint’s Associate Director Sujeong Lim said, “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.”

More information

This is all the data Counterpoint had to share:

• “Apple maintained its solid No. 1 position with a 30% market share but fell 3% points YoY due to intensified competition. However, its ASP rose 3% without the release of the SE model in 2021. As a result, Apple accounted for half of the total market revenue,” Counterpoint said..
• “Samsung overtook Huawei to grab 10.2% of the market. Fitbit saw decline falling to 38% from 5.7%. Samsung was one of the most successful smartwatch OEMs in 2021. Its QoQ growth was more than 200% in the third quarter to record the brand’s best shipments ever. This growth retained strength until the last quarter. Moving to Wear OS through a partnership with Google has worked well for the brand in many ways.”

New features include narrated running workouts with music.

• “Garmin performed better than expected in 2021. Garmin had initially focused on introducing high-priced smartwatches for special categories like aviation and divers. But it is gradually shifting focus to bringing attractive consumer products from price and design perspective. As a result, it showed 35% YoY growth and took sixth place by raising its global ranking by one place,” the analysis reads.

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