Apple has swallowed up half of the smartwatch market this year

Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) has dominated the wearable device market in recent years, thanks in large part to the popularity of the Apple Watch. Strong demand for AirPods also helps, as the company is the leader in wearable devices as well. The smartwatch market has been able to grow so far this year despite the economic havoc the COVID-19 pandemic has wreaked across the world.

The Mac maker has expanded its market share over the past year and accounted for over half of all smartwatch revenue in the first two quarters of 2020.

Image source: Apple.

Apple Watch is the world’s most popular smartwatch

Counterpoint Research estimates that Apple’s share of smartwatch revenue in H1 2020 was 51.4%, up from 43.2% in H1 2019. Vendor # 2 was Garmin (NASDAQ: GRMN) with 9.4% share during this period, followed by China’s Huawei at 8.3%. Overall unit volumes were roughly flat, at around 42 million, as consumers tried to keep exercising during the coronavirus crisis, but the 20% growth in total watch sales smart indicates an increase in average selling prices (ASP).

“The smartwatch space remains a popular consumer device segment, compared to slowing demand for smartphones and many other segments in the first six months of 2020 due to the devastation caused by COVID-19,” Sujeong said. Lim, Senior Counterpoint Analyst. “Almost 42 million smartwatches were shipped in the first half of 2020 as wearable devices continue to experience increased demand and consumers become increasingly health conscious.

The Apple Watch Series 5 has the most popular smartwatch model to date in 2020, followed by the older Apple Watch Series 3 that the Cupertino tech giant continues to sell for a lower price of $ 199. Huawei’s Watch GT2 was the third best-selling gadget, with Samsung’s Galaxy Watch Active 2 ranking # 4 in popularity.

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⌚️Global smartwatch revenue up 20% year-on-year despite growth in shipments remained stable in H1 2020

⌚️ @Apple dominated by capturing half of global smartwatch revenue

⌚️ @Garmin jumped to second place in terms of revenue with demand for the Forerunner series climbs: //t.co/oe3rExYSrM pic.twitter.com/RnBOgZvF5c

– Neil Shah (@neiltwitz) August 20, 2020

Fitbit (NYSE: FIT) didn’t perform very well, recouping only 2.4% of the smartwatch’s revenue. The specialist in wearable technologies, which Alphabetof (NASDAQ: GOOG) (NASDAQ: GOOGL) Google is trying to acquire, facing fierce competition from Apple and Garmin, according to Neil Shah of Counterpoint. The market researcher believes that Fitbit will have to do more to “create demand during the holiday season”. Fitbit is expected to have a Versa 3 in the pipeline, as well as a new smartwatch model called the Sense.

Earlier this month, Fitbit reported an almost 30% drop in devices sold (including smartwatches and basic fitness trackers) in its fiscal second quarter. As for Google, Counterpoint estimates that the company’s WearOS platform represented around 10% of the market.

European antitrust regulators recently opened an antitrust investigation into Google’s proposed acquisition of Fitbit, fearing the search giant was exploiting sensitive health data for ad targeting. Still, both companies remain optimistic that the deal will close before the end of the year.