It seems like Google’s decision to launch a Pixel smartwatch has paid off some dividends. According to a report by Canalys, Google attained the second position in the global smartwatch market in the previous quarter. By doing so, Google has beaten Samsung, which slipped to the third spot, whereas Apple continues to lead and dominate the market worldwide. The Pixel Watch has seen a lot of buyers, and despite Fitbit’s decline in shipments, Google took the second spot.
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As per Canalys, it was a “challenging” Q4 for the wearables market as shipments declined 18% and clocked 50 million units. “This marks the first double-digit decline for the market in a typically seasonally strong Q4 quarter,” noted the report by Canalys.
The smartwatch category in itself declined by 17% in the quarter. Apple’s shipments declined 17% yet it remained the market leader with a 27.5% market share. Google’s Pixel Watch helped it to rise to second place with an 8% market share.
Samsung suffered the biggest decline — as much as 35% — and it slipped to the fifth spot in the market. Canalys says that this could be down to WearOS migration dwindling, and “it was further limited by the iterative update of the Galaxy Watch 5 series.” Xiaomi gained the fourth spot, whereas Huawei came in third, but both companies saw their shipments decline in the quarter.
It is expected that the smartwatch market will grow in 2023 but not that significantly. “The wearable band market is expected to grow at a modest 2% in 2023,” said Canalys Analyst Cynthia Chen. “While we expect basic bands to continue declining, basic watches and smartwatches will grow, but growth will be capped below 10%. Vendors remain vigilant and will emphasize quality rather than quantity given some recovery in consumer spending.”