Fitbit Smartwatch shipments grows 348% YoY - Counterpoint

According to the latest research from Counterpoint’s Global Smartwatch Tracker, global smartwatch shipments grew 53% YoY in Q3 2018 with strong performance from Fitbit. Apple continues to dominate the smartwatch market with 30% share.

Discussing Apple’s performance, Research Director, Jeff Fieldhack, noted, “Apple continues to dominate the smartwatch market with a lion’s share of 30% of the smartwatches shipped. The introduction of the Series 4 this fall was the biggest update from a design and features standpoint, and has quickly resonated with Apple’s loyal user base. Apple’s Series 3 saw an uptick later in the quarter with discounted pricing, while Apple’s Series 1 continued to be the single biggest selling SKU contributing to almost half of all Apple Watch shipments. This could change in holiday season quarter as our channel checks showed pent-up demand for the Series 4.”

Commenting on the major shift in the market, Counterpoint Research Analyst, Satyajit Sinha, noted, “Fitbit continues to shift its focus from predominantly SmartBand/trackers to smartwatches and has now evolved as the next best player to Apple in terms of experience and scale. The launch of the Versa smartwatch was the turning point for Fitbit’s smartwatch segment growth. The health/fitness factor is playing a key role in driving consumer decision making for the adoption of smartwatches and Fitbit has entirely focused on this core use case.”

Counterpoint’s Senior Analyst, Hanish Bhatia, added, “The children’s or kids’ smartwatch segment is growing rapidly, especially in Asia. The market is being driven by Chinese brands such as Imoo, Kido, Kurio, TCL and Vtechin US. The segment is attractive for operators as well; there are significant net adds to be gained by Chinese operators and bigger operators such as Vodafone with their V IoT portfolio, AIS Thailand and Maxis in Malaysia, all of which have added kids’ smartwatches to their portfolios to boost new connections and additional revenue streams.The new platform can boost Android wear smartwatch sales and market share, which have been stagnant at 17%.”

Report Snapshot -

* The Smartwatch market is dominated by top five brands, which account for 69% of the shipments by volume

* Apple’s quarterly shipments grew by 24% sequentially and 31% YoY in Q3 2018 due to the enthusiastic response to the launch of its Watch Series 4

* Fitbit’s share in smartwatch shipments grew sharply to 16%, primarily due to the continued success of its Versa, which was released in April 2018

* Imoo is a sub-brand of a Chinese OEM BBK Group (which owns OPPO, Vivo and OnePlus). Imoo held a healthy 10% global market share in Q3 2018

* Samsung smartwatch shipments grew 7% QoQ and 22% YoY due to a better performance of both its Gear S3 and the new Galaxy Watch launched in August 2018.