Apple Watch Series 5 Demand Helped Apple Dominate Smartwatch Market, Report Shows

Apple continues to lead other companies in the smartwatch race, with demand for the Apple Watch Series 5 models driving its sales further in the first half of the year, a report shows.

There are a variety of smartwatches available in the market today, but a new report revealed that the Apple Watch continues to dominate in the wearables category, outselling every other smartwatch in the first half of the year.

The Apple Watch accounts for 51.4% of all smartwatch shipments around the world during the first half of 2020, according to a report from Counterpoint Research. This is followed by Garmin's devices (9.4% of all shipments) and Huawei wearables (8.3%).

The report indicated that of the 42 million smartwatches that were shipped to markets across the globe, slightly more than half were Apple Watches in varying models. The smartwatch market saw a 20% increase year-on-year as people became more concerned with their health amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Close to 42 million smartwatches were shipped in the first half of 2020 as wearables continue to see greater demand with consumers becoming more health conscious,” Counterpoint senior analyst Sujeong Lim said.

Lim added that the Apple Watch's growth is largely attributed to the heightened demand for the Series 5 models, which offer better health features to consumers.

"Apple continued to dominate the smartwatch market both in volume and value. Apple captured a record half of the market in terms of revenue due to strong demand for the Apple Watch S5 models,” Lim said.

In the list of bestselling smartwatches based on the number of units shipped globally, the Apple Watch Series 5 is followed by the more affordable but very capable Apple Watch Series 3. The two are then followed by Huawei's Watch GT2, Samsung's Galaxy Watch Active 2 and the Imoo Z3 4G.

It's worth noting that Apple saw a 22% increase in Apple Watch shipments compared to the same period last year. This increase happened even as the world faced the harmful effects of COVID-19.

European and North American consumers bought the highest number of Apple Watches, the report said.