Wearables are an integral part of the consumer smartphone market since they tie people to an ecosystem. The most popular wearable is the smartwatch and major smartphone brands have their own smartwatch line.
The International Data Corporation (IDC) recently released the Worldwide Quarterly Wearable Device Tracker report which has some interesting revelations.
According to the report, 16.9 million smartwatches were shipped in the first quarter of 2020, which was down 7.1% year on year. Huawei was second on this list with 2.6 million unit ships, which was a massive 118.5% year on year growth, which is the highest growth on the list. Apple still maintained top spot with 4.5 million units shipped which was a 2.2% decrease compared to the same period last year.
Other manufacturers in the list include Garmin with 1.3 million smartwatches sold and Huami with 1 million sold. The other manufacturers are labelled as ‘others’ and collectively sold 5.7 million units in Q1 2020..
Thanks to the increase in the number of smartwatches sold, Huawei now has 15.2% market share, after Apple’s 26.8% market share. Huawei managed to steamroll past Samsung, where the latter now has a 10.8% market share with 1.8 million smartwatches sold in the quarter.
Globally, shipments of wearables reached 72.6 million units in q1 2020, which was a year on year increase of 29.7%.
IDC says Huawei’s growth is due to the strong online presence and close ties with retailers. Huawei’s growth has been seen on their home soil as well as in Europe, Latin America and other Asian markets.
Locally, we have seen Huawei sell their smartwatches in their brand stores. Huawei opened their first experience store at Sarit Center where they sold a number of their wearables, which included their smartwatches. They sell the Huawei GT2 smartwatch and activity trackers like the Band 4.
