Despite a double-digit growth for the entire year, the overall smartwatch market plummeted during the fourth quarter of 2022, with all major brands suffering from lower sales.
According to Canalys, the quarter saw an 18 per cent shipment decline, to 50 million units. This marks the first double-digit decline for the market in what is usually a seasonally strong quarter.
Apple remains the leading vendor in ‘wearables’, but saw a 17 per cent drop for the quarter. This was modest, compared to its competitors.
Google’s shipments for the three months fell by a quarter compared to the same period in 2021 due to weakened FitBit , but still managed to see the company rise to second-place in ‘wearables’, based on strong Pixel Watch sales, which rose 16 per cent.
Xiaomi, Huawei and Samsung all experienced big declines. Samsung dropped to fifth place, a 35 per cent decline driven by WearOS migration dwindling, “further limited by the iterative update of the Galaxy Watch 5 series,” according to Canalys.
