Apple Watch has its best third-quarter ever increasing its lead over Samsung in the premium market

Apple Watch has its best third-quarter ever increasing its lead over Samsung in the premium market،

Significant activity took place in the global smartwatch market during the third quarter, according to Search for counterpoint. Shipments increased 9% year over year during the third quarter. Strong performance in India and Huawei’s strong rebound in China helped drive growth in the overall market. Counterpoint has also taken an in-depth look at the premium smartwatch market, also known as high-level operating system (HLOS) smartwatches. These devices support the use of third-party applications.

In the third quarter, the Apple Watch, the world’s most popular watch, led the way in the premium segment of the smartwatch market. The device had its best third quarter ever with an annual shipment gain of 7%. The second-generation variant of the budget Apple Watch SE also performed well. During the quarter, Apple increased its lead over second-place Samsung.

Apple ended the quarter with a significant 45% share of the global premium smartwatch market, unchanged from the same quarter last year. Samsung, on the other hand, saw its share fall 6 basis points to 18%, from 24% in Q3 2022. Samsung’s shipments declined 19% year-over-year, although the latest Galaxy Watch 6 and Galaxy Watch 6 Classic saw shipments in the third quarter. decline of only 3% on an annual basis.

Apple Watch increases its lead over Samsung in the premium smartwatch market

Although declining shipments of older Galaxy Watch models were the main problem with Samsung’s numbers, the average selling price (ASP) of its watches increased as the watches got more expensive. Galaxy Watch 6 Classic had a higher sales proportion than the more expensive Galaxy Watch 5 Pro in the same quarter last year.

Just a few percentage points behind Samsung, with 14% of the global premium smartwatch market, was Huawei, with a 14% share. Huawei’s share in the third quarter of last year was less than 7% and the rebound was fueled by a 56% year-over-year increase in overall smartwatch shipments and a 122% increase in shipments of its high-end HLOS watches. The Huawei Watch 4 and Watch 4 Pro series, all launched in the second quarter of this year, have reached a high level of popularity in China, as has the Watch GT 4, released in the third quarter of this year.

Huawei’s strong performance was partly explained by the surprise introduction of the Mate 60 Pro series, powered by its own 7nm Kirin 9000s 5G chips. The announcement of these phones sparked a wave of nationalism in China due to US sanctions that attempted to block Huawei devices from accessing 5G signals. Facing strong demand for the Mate 60 line, phones have been bundled with watches by some retailers and e-commerce platforms in China.

Counterpoint Research analyst Woojin Son said: “It is very useful to look at the growth drivers of the global smartwatch market in the third quarter of 2023. Amid the global economic slowdown, most large device markets public like smartphones are still experiencing stagnation compared to a year ago. , the smartwatch market recorded annual growth for two consecutive quarters in both the premium and budget segments.