Estimate pegs holiday Apple Watch sales at 5.2M, giving Apple a 63% marketshare

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in Apple Watch
Though Apple has not officially announced any sales figures for its wearable Apple Watch, that hasn't stopped research firms from estimating its performance, with new data from Strategy Analytics pegging the device at 5.2 million shipments in the fourth quarter of 2016.




Total smartwatch shipments are estimated to have grown 1 percent annually to 8.2 million units in the holiday quarter. That would give Apple a dominant 63 percent share of the entire segment.

Though Apple has not announced any actual sales figures for the Apple Watch, the company did say a new record was set for sales during the three-month period. Accordingly, Strategy Analytics's projections suggest sales increased slightly year over year, from 5.1 million Apple Watches in the holiday 2015 quarter.

The next closest competitor, according to Strategy Analytics, was estimated to be Samsung, with just 800,000 units shipped and a 10 percent share. That was a reduction from 2.7 million units and 16 percent in the same period a year prior.

In all, Strategy Analytics forecasts that Apple shipped 11.6 million units in 2016, with the majority of those coming from the launch of Apple Watch Series 2 in the last few months of the year. Total smartwatch shipments for the year were pegged at 21.1 million.

Still, the firm believes that total Apple Watch shipments in 2016 were down from 2015, when the wearable device first debuted. Its estimates suggest the Apple Watch shipped 13.6 million units in 2015.

As such, with slower shipments from both Apple and Samsung, the 1 percent growth forecast for 2016 was attributed to other manufacturers. Though Strategy Analytics did not single out any other competitors, it said total shipments in the "others" category grew from 4.5 million in 2015 to 7.1 million in 2016.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 23
    lkrupplkrupp Posts: 10,557member
    The news just keeps getting worse for the naysayers.
    tmayanton zuykovcanadiandudewatto_cobraHodar0cali
  • Reply 2 of 23
    MacProMacPro Posts: 19,718member
    Market share and no doubt the lion's share of profit goes to Apple too  I wonder what the percentage profit was for the remaining 37%.  I would suspect it is similar to the smart phone market, next to nothing.
    edited February 2017 watto_cobracali
  • Reply 3 of 23
    dougddougd Posts: 292member
    I've still zero interest in this device. If they develop to a point where the battery lasts a week, maybe.
    brucemc
  • Reply 4 of 23
    irelandireland Posts: 17,798member
    The new iPod.
    cali
  • Reply 5 of 23
    irelandireland Posts: 17,798member
    dougd said:
    I've still zero interest in this device. If they develop to a point where the battery lasts a week, maybe.
    When, not if. Advanced health features for watches over the next 12 years will be huge. Diabetics won't know themselves.

    Imaging features such as:

    "You seem thirsty, sip on a glass of water soon (300 ml)".

    "Your blood pressure seems a little high. You might consider some yoga or meditation classes. In the meantime here is the number of your doctor to book a checkup".

    "I've tested your blood and you have 40mg of Lp(a) per decilitre. It is recommended you consume around 3,000 mg (3 grams) of vitamin C daily. I found the number for Holland & Barret in your contacts. Ask them if they have vitamin c in stock. They have a sale on currently".

    "I am your long lost cousin from Nigeria. Please wire me $1M and I will make you a king in my country".
    edited February 2017 mwhiteanantksundaramtmaykevin keefotoformatpscooter63anton zuykovcanadiandudewatto_cobraHodar0
  • Reply 6 of 23
    mwhitemwhite Posts: 287member
    Bought one for my daughter for Christmas and she loves it uses it all the time. :)
    netmageequality72521watto_cobraHodar0cali
  • Reply 7 of 23
    brucemcbrucemc Posts: 1,541member
    ireland said:
    The new iPod.
    I understand what you mean by the comment, but while the Apple Watch will gain connectivity independence from iPhone at some point in the future, I am not sure that Apple Watch will become a desired product by many in the Android user base.  So the iPod within the iPhone user base for sure (a huge market, that some estimate is perhaps hitting 700M people) - Fitbit was the only near term contender and we see the trend there.
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 8 of 23
    crowleycrowley Posts: 10,453member
    ireland said:
    dougd said:
    I've still zero interest in this device. If they develop to a point where the battery lasts a week, maybe.
    When, not if. Advanced health features for watches over the next 12 years will be huge. Diabetics won't know themselves.

    Imaging features such as:

    "You seem thirsty, sip on a glass of water soon (300 ml)".

    "Your blood pressure seems a little high. You might consider some yoga or meditation classes. In the meantime here is the number of your doctor to book a checkup".

    "I've tested your blood and you have 40mg of Lp(a) per decilitre. It is recommended you consume around 3,000 mg (3 grams) of vitamin C daily. I found the number for Holland & Barret in your contacts. Ask them if they have vitamin c in stock. They have a sale on currently".

    "I am your long lost cousin from Nigeria. Please wire me $1M and I will make you a king in my country".
    Long way to go yet.  My Apple Watch can't even accurately tell if I'm standing up.
  • Reply 9 of 23
    dougd said:
    I've still zero interest in this device. If they develop to a point where the battery lasts a week, maybe.
    You don't know what you're missing, in the meantime. 
    netmagewatto_cobramacgui
  • Reply 10 of 23
    NY1822NY1822 Posts: 621member
    i don't understand people not buying the product purely bc of battery issues...I've never had a problem with mine and when i put it on the charger it has minimum 60% ....do people really want to sleep with their watch on ? if you're taking your watch off at night what's the big deal putting it on a stand?
    edited February 2017 tjwolfnetmagecanadiandudewatto_cobrachiajdgaz
  • Reply 11 of 23
    irelandireland Posts: 17,798member
    crowley said:
    ireland said:
    dougd said:
    I've still zero interest in this device. If they develop to a point where the battery lasts a week, maybe.
    When, not if. Advanced health features for watches over the next 12 years will be huge. Diabetics won't know themselves.

    Imaging features such as:

    "You seem thirsty, sip on a glass of water soon (300 ml)".

    "Your blood pressure seems a little high. You might consider some yoga or meditation classes. In the meantime here is the number of your doctor to book a checkup".

    "I've tested your blood and you have 40mg of Lp(a) per decilitre. It is recommended you consume around 3,000 mg (3 grams) of vitamin C daily. I found the number for Holland & Barret in your contacts. Ask them if they have vitamin c in stock. They have a sale on currently".

    "I am your long lost cousin from Nigeria. Please wire me $1M and I will make you a king in my country".
    Long way to go yet.  My Apple Watch can't even accurately tell if I'm standing up.
    lol
  • Reply 12 of 23
    dougd said:
    I've still zero interest in this device. If they develop to a point where the battery lasts a week, maybe.
    I do have a watch series 2 and really like it.  The people I see and ask say the same thing. .  I see it a lot at the gym and at the hospital I work at.  It is easy to use for even an old guy like me.  I charge it every other night and it takes me about 10 seconds.  LIke charging my phone it has become something we all just do.  I would be willing to bet that if you bought one you would be impressed.  
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 13 of 23
    kevin keekevin kee Posts: 1,289member
    dougd said:
    I've still zero interest in this device. If they develop to a point where the battery lasts a week, maybe.
    There is a common misconception that smartwatch is merely a watch.
    netmagewatto_cobra
  • Reply 14 of 23
    ireland said:
    dougd said:
    I've still zero interest in this device. If they develop to a point where the battery lasts a week, maybe.
    When, not if. Advanced health features for watches over the next 12 years will be huge. Diabetics won't know themselves.

    Imaging features such as:

    "You seem thirsty, sip on a glass of water soon (300 ml)".

    "Your blood pressure seems a little high. You might consider some yoga or meditation classes. In the meantime here is the number of your doctor to book a checkup".

    "I've tested your blood and you have 40mg of Lp(a) per decilitre. It is recommended you consume around 3,000 mg (3 grams) of vitamin C daily. I found the number for Holland & Barret in your contacts. Ask them if they have vitamin c in stock. They have a sale on currently".

    "I am your long lost cousin from Nigeria. Please wire me $1M and I will make you a king in my country".
    For all except the last point I don't need a watch, or actually any kind of computer ;)
  • Reply 15 of 23
    I would like to know how exactly is Strategy Analytics getting their numbers. Is it through reading random receipts from online purchases, if so that doesn't seem that accurate. With that being said how can I even take these numbers seriously?
    netmage
  • Reply 16 of 23
    lkrupp said:
    The news just keeps getting worse for the naysayers.
    The stupid naysayers never give up. This is the blurb on Swatch's earnings from today's Wall Street Journal: "Swatch reported a plunge in profit for 2016 and slashed its dividend, underscoring how shaky consumer confidence and weakness in key markets such as Hong Kong have taken their toll on the Swiss watch industry."

    Um... what? Hello? Someone missing an elephant? Right there, in the room? With them?
    edited February 2017 Rayz2016cali
  • Reply 17 of 23
    Apple and Samsung have real hardware advantages which make them the smart watches of choice. As they continue their development programs, the others will likely exit the market all together. LG is the only hope for Android wear as there really is no other capable hardware manufacturer who can build a decent watch. Apple uses watchOS and Samsung uses Tizen. 

    I am close to purchasing a smartwatch and the stand alone call capability of the Samsung Gear S3 frontier is pretty compelling. On the other hand, Apple Pay using the watch is a pretty nice feature. Android wear watches have virtually no compelling features. The next big hardware paradigm is being lost to Google. 

    Now, if Apple would just put a baseband radio in the watch. . .
    command_fcali
  • Reply 18 of 23
    dougd said:
    I've still zero interest in this device. If they develop to a point where the battery lasts a week, maybe.

    Just got mine a couple of weeks ago.
    If you are old enough to remember when microwave ovens were first introduced, they were marketed as cooking a hot dog or cup cake in 30 seconds or so.  And people thought, "Wow, that's neat, but how often will I need a hot dog or cup cake cooked like that?".  The Apple Watch is very similar to that.  My first thought was "neat gimmick, but how useful is it .... really?".  After 2 weeks, the answer is "It's almost indispensable".  It reminds me to be active - as an engineer, I sit at my computer all day, this reminds me to get up and go for a walk, to stand, to simply breathe, to wind down and go to bed.  Simple things - but you know - after a few weeks, these little reminders add up to making me feel better.  I feel more rested, and my diet is working better.
    When I'm driving and I get a call - the watch is a speaker phone - hands free phone device that sounds GREAT.  People don't realize I am not wearing a handset while I conduct my conversation as I drive along the country roads.  ( I have a 90 minute commute each way to work - I work in the space industry, so my job is remote).  In meetings, a text comes through with a haptic vibration and I can easily respond discreetly that I will get back to them shortly.  When I need to navigate in a city, I get turn by turn instructions on my wrist so that I don't even need to look at a screen.  And that's just the basics.  It's only going to get better.
    RodoBobJon
  • Reply 19 of 23
    boredumbboredumb Posts: 1,418member
    lkrupp said:
    The news just keeps getting worse for the naysayers.
    That might be true if this were "news".
    As it happens, this is what's properly referred to as a "guess".
    The article doesn't even bother to convey what the "guess" is based on (i.e., device's network presence, for example).

    Hey!  I love Apple - I'm estimating they sold 52 million watches!  
    (Must be accurate - it's based on a clever "decimal point reconfiguration" method.)
  • Reply 20 of 23
    Rayz2016Rayz2016 Posts: 6,957member
    crowley said:
    ireland said:
    dougd said:
    I've still zero interest in this device. If they develop to a point where the battery lasts a week, maybe.
    When, not if. Advanced health features for watches over the next 12 years will be huge. Diabetics won't know themselves.

    Imaging features such as:

    "You seem thirsty, sip on a glass of water soon (300 ml)".

    "Your blood pressure seems a little high. You might consider some yoga or meditation classes. In the meantime here is the number of your doctor to book a checkup".

    "I've tested your blood and you have 40mg of Lp(a) per decilitre. It is recommended you consume around 3,000 mg (3 grams) of vitamin C daily. I found the number for Holland & Barret in your contacts. Ask them if they have vitamin c in stock. They have a sale on currently".

    "I am your long lost cousin from Nigeria. Please wire me $1M and I will make you a king in my country".
    Long way to go yet.  My Apple Watch can't even accurately tell if I'm standing up.
    Mmm. Mine can. Are you really short?
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