Shipment of smart watches this year has almost halved

In an age when, in developed countries, everyone has a smartphone or a mobile phone in his pocket, wrist watches have moved into the category of accessories and status items. High-quality and beautiful watches have become an indispensable attribute of people seeking to look both stylish and solid at the same time. Those who are more important functionality, manufacturers offer more convenient and less expensive models.

About three years ago, at the suggestion of Pebble, the world began to experience a boom in smart watches - high-tech devices that work in conjunction with smartphones. For these wearable devices, they began to write separate software and lay down additional functions, such as heart rate monitors, pedometers and alarm clocks. But everything is not as happy as it could be: according to information from IDC analysts , the shipment of "smart" watches over the past year has more than doubled, by 51.6%, compared to the same period of the previous 2015.

The “smart” watches from Lenovo proved to be the worst of all - the shipment of Chinese-made devices over the past year has decreased by 73.3% . Apple's iWatch follows with a reduction in shipments of 71.6% . It is worth noting that the share of Lenovo in 2016 only accounts for 3.4% of the market, while the share of iWatch is 41.3% (against 70.2% for the same period in 2015).
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Compared to Apple, the Korean giant Samsung is feeling confident. In addition to increasing its presence from 6.4% in 2015 to 14.4% of the market in 2016, it shows a positive trend in shipment of its own smart watches by 9%.

Explosive growth shows the manufacturer Garmin. Over the past year, its market share has increased almost ninefold, from 2.3% to 20.5% . Against this background, the growth in shipment of Garmin’s smart watches was 324.2% .

It is likely that Samsung’s positive performance is due to the fact that their products are quite successfully disguised as traditional watches:


Samsung Gear S2 Classic from afar can be taken for an ordinary wrist watch

At the same time, Garmin positions its “smart” watches as devices for sports and outdoor activities, also preferring for many models the classic design inherent in ordinary watches:


Garmin Fenix ​​3 Sapphire

In addition, the manufacturer benefits from an extensive model range for various needs, up to hours “for sailors,” while technology giants are limited in this regard, especially Apple with its “one device” policy.

In total, in the third quarter of this year, the number of smart watch manufacturers shipped by manufacturers reduced in absolute terms from 5.6 million units in 2015 to 2.7 million units in 2016.


Summary table for major manufacturers from the IDC report

When smart watches appeared on the market, some evangelicals predicted stagnation and decline in the classical sector. Manufacturers of ordinary watches didn’t react to this and allowed startups and technological giants to develop another “toy”. And they turned out to be right: a few years later, it became clear to customers that the clock should be hours, and not another “charging device” in the evenings.

But the comfort of using such devices has not increased over time. Smart watches have always lost to their “stupid” predecessors in reliability, ease of use and, most importantly, battery life.

The concept of broadcasting a smartphone screen on a smart watch screen by many potential users may be perceived ambiguously. For all the additional features and functions, the very essence of the watch wearable on the wrist is lost - a simple and reliable device for tracking the time of day.

On the other hand, the reduction in shipments can be associated with the expectation of a wave of new products and the preparation of the market for the release of new models. Now this is exactly what can restrain the growth of sales and, accordingly, the reduction of shipment. The public is waiting for the new iWatch from Apple, as well as the already announced, but not yet released Samsung Gear S3. It is likely that after the release of new models, the market of “smart” watches will revive and return to growth in the number of shipped and sold devices.