World gross sales of smartwatches have fallen for the primary time, new figures point out, largely because of a pointy decline within the recognition of market chief, Apple.
Market analysis agency Counterpoint says 7% fewer of the gadgets have been shipped in 2024 in comparison with the yr earlier than.
Shipments of Apple Watches fell by 19% in that interval, Counterpoint says.
It blames the hunch on a scarcity of latest options in Apple’s newest gadgets, and the actual fact a rumoured high-end Extremely 3 mannequin by no means materialised.
“The most important driver of the decline was North America, the place the absence of the Extremely 3 and minimal characteristic upgrades within the S10 lineup led customers to carry again purchases,” stated Counterpoint senior analysis analyst Anshika Jain.
Apple was additionally hit with gross sales and import bans within the US in late 2023 and early 2024 over a disputed patent concerning blood oxygen stage monitoring – which Ms Jain says additionally contributed to decrease gross sales figures within the first half of 2024.
It retained 22% of market share within the last three months of 2024, down from 25% a yr earlier.
Regardless of the general decline, final yr did see a large rise in gross sales for Chinese language-made smartwatches from manufacturers resembling Xiaomi, Huawei and Imoo.
Gross sales in China additionally grew from 19% of the market to 25% within the yr from the final quarter of 2023.
This was the primary time it recorded extra smartwatch gross sales than India or North America, in response to Counterpoint.
“Huawei, Imoo and Xiaomi have been the entrance runners of the China market,” stated Ms Jain.
The Chinese language producers additionally appeared to faucet into one other development – the rising recognition of smartwatches for kids, the one phase of the market to develop in 2024.
Imoo, recognized in China as “Little Genius”, specialises in youngsters’s good watches and noticed a 22% rise in shipments.
“The youngsters’ good watch phase is gaining traction as mother and father are involved for his or her youngsters’s security, they usually need to trace and keep consistently related with their youngsters,” Counterpoint’s Balbir Singh stated.
However Imoo was eclipsed by a 135% rise in shipments from Beijing-based tech firm Xiaomi.
Its Sensible Band exercise trackers promote for a fraction of the value of rivals made by Apple and Samsung.
One other massive contributor to the worldwide gross sales drop was India, which fell from 30% of the market to 23%.
Counter says it expects a small restoration with “single-digit proportion development in 2025”.
It predicts the uptick in gross sales shall be pushed by the growing adoption of AI options, and a higher emphasis of offering a wider vary of well being knowledge.
