Apple Is Dominating Global Smartwatch Shipments

While Q2 2019 was a mixed quarter for smartphone shipments, it was a great time to be a smartwatch. Global shipments increased 44% year over year, according to Strategy Analytics. There’s a clear top dog, the very same one that dominated the early smartphone days.

The best: Apple shipped 5.7 million watches last quarter, capturing 46% of smartwatch market share. That’s a 50% annual increase in shipments.

The rest: Samsung came in a respectable second with 2 million smartwatch shipments and 16% of total market share (up from 900,000 and 11% in Q2 2018). Fitbit grudgingly took home the bronze with 1.2 million shipments and 10% market share (both down YoY).

• Garmin, Fossil, and more vendors are also in the mix...and would be more than happy to knock Fitbit, which is bleeding market share, off the pedestal.

Big picture: The future looks bright for consumer wearables. They’re getting better at logging biometric data, bringing offline behavior online, and capturing your attention.