Apple Watch still dominates smartwatch category, but its marketshare is slipping

The Apple Watch is still the dominate smartwatch, but it’s market share is slipping. In quarter three (Q3) of 2021, Samsung achieved its highest quarterly shipments with the launch of the Galaxy Watch 4 series, narrowing the gap with Apple, according to new data from Counterpoint Research.

With Samsung’s move to use Wear OS, the OS’s share in the smartwatch market increased to 17% in Q3 2021 from 4% in Q2 2021, notes the research group.

Apple still held the No. 1 spot in Q3 2021 but its share fell 10% year-over-year as its Watch Series 7 launch was delayed to the fourth quarter. Overall, global smartwatch shipments in the third quarter of this year increased 16% compared to the same period last year, continuing their double-digit growth following the previous quarter, according to Counterpoint Research.