As novelty wanes, smartwatch sales plummet — Apple Watch down 72% year-on-year

What a difference a year can make. Over the last 365 days, a bevy of smartwatches has been released, saturating the market with options to choose from — each with its own iteration and take on what today’s consumer wants available on their wrist.

Per a recent study, the industry’s lack of focus, coupled with presenting today’s consumer with too many options, has led to a significant drop in sales year-over-year. 

Specifically, smartwatch shipments have dropped 52% year-on-year, industry wide. And while Apple remained the market’s leader, the number of Watch devices shipped saw a decline of 72% year-on-year.

In the third quarter of 2016 (July-September), the company shipped slightly more than one million Watch devices. Last year, it shipped 3.9 million during the same time period.

Of the five leading brands, just one has showed growth — Garmin, though, it is worth pointing out, its figures were pretty low too. 

“It has become evident that, at present, smartwatches are not for everyone,” said market analyst Jitesh Ubrani. “Having a clear purpose and use case is paramount, hence many vendors are focusing on fitness due to its simplicity.”
 
Apple is one of these vendors, as it is actively repositioning its Watch product as a fitness device. In addition to counting steps, recording run data, and other land-based measurement tasks, the latest Watch version will also be able to record swimming activity. Additionally, the company plans to release a version in partnership with Nike later in the month. 

Despite the fact that the numbers might suggest consumer appetite is weak for this particular type of device, the industry is pushing forward. Similar to Apple, Samsung plans to release new versions of its smartwatch products; Google, too, plans to enter the industry soon with its own Android Wear line of smartwatches. 

Some of the more noteworthy findings reported from the study: 
• -71.6% : Apple's year-on-year decline of its Watch device shipments was 71.6%
• -73.3% : Lenovo, which makes the Moto 360, suffered the biggest drop with shipments down 73.3%
• +0.5 million : Garmin was the only brand to show growth, with shipments of 0.6 million in the third quarter of 2016 compared with 0.1 million in 2015
• 0.4 million : Samsung shipped 0.4 million of its Gear and Gear2 watches in both 2015 and 2016, thus showing no growth
• -0.1 million : Pebble slowed from 0.2 million to 0.1 million shipments year-on-year

Via the BBC