International gross sales of smartwatches have fallen for the primary time, new figures point out, largely because of a pointy decline within the approval for marketplace chief, Apple.
Marketplace analysis company Counterpoint says 7% fewer of the gadgets have been shipped in 2024 in comparison to the 12 months earlier than.
Shipments of Apple Watches fell via 19% in that duration, Counterpoint says.
It blames the droop on a loss of new options in Apple’s newest gadgets, and the truth a rumoured high-end Extremely 3 type by no means materialised.
“The largest driving force of the decline was once North The united states, the place the absence of the Extremely 3 and minimum function upgrades within the S10 lineup led customers to carry again purchases,” stated Counterpoint senior analysis analyst Anshika Jain.
Apple was once additionally hit with gross sales and import bans in america in past due 2023 and early 2024 over a disputed patent referring to blood oxygen stage tracking – which Ms Jain says additionally contributed to decrease gross sales figures within the first part of 2024.
It retained 22% of marketplace proportion within the ultimate 3 months of 2024, down from 25% a 12 months previous.
“We have now been thru a duration the place the smartwatch has long past from being a brand new and thrilling machine, to one thing now that is stabilising – the function set is not converting very dramatically 12 months over 12 months,” stated Leo Gebbie, important analyst at CCS Perception.
In spite of the whole decline, ultimate 12 months did see a large upward thrust in gross sales for Chinese language-made smartwatches from manufacturers reminiscent of Xiaomi, Huawei and Imoo.
Gross sales in China additionally grew from 19% of the marketplace to twenty-five% within the 12 months from the ultimate quarter of 2023.
This was once the primary time it recorded extra smartwatch gross sales than India or North The united states, in line with Counterpoint.
The Chinese language producers additionally perceived to faucet into any other development – the rising approval for smartwatches for youngsters, the one phase of the marketplace to develop in 2024.
Imoo, recognized in China as “Little Genius”, specialises in kids’s good watches and noticed a 22% upward thrust in shipments.
“The youngsters’ good watch phase is gaining traction as oldsters are involved for his or her kids’s protection, they usually need to trace and keep repeatedly attached with their kids,” Counterpoint’s Balbir Singh stated.
However Imoo was once eclipsed via a 135% upward thrust in shipments from Beijing-based tech corporate Xiaomi.
Its Good Band task trackers promote for a fragment of the cost of opponents made via Apple and Samsung.
“We are seeing the huge client electronics gamers like Apple and Samsung in reality simply glance to power some way upper margin and no longer have interaction within the price cutting war,” stated Mr Gebbie.
“Xiaomi has executed a in reality just right task of marketing gadgets, in particular in areas like southern and japanese Europe the place that larger affordability has a tendency to resonate much more strongly with consumers.”
Any other massive contributor to the worldwide gross sales drop was once India, which fell from 30% of the marketplace to 23%.
He stated this was once in part on account of a “bubble” in ultra-cheap gadgets from Indian producers which has now burst.
“We learn and noticed so much on the subject of court cases concerning the high quality of gadgets, with folks being unsatisfied with them,” he stated.
“For the ones firms, there is been a way that from this level onwards they’d be higher served via possibly making and promoting merchandise with a reasonably longer lifespan.”
Counterpoint says it expects a small restoration within the world marketplace, with “single-digit share expansion in 2025”.
It predicts the uptick in gross sales might be pushed via the expanding adoption of AI options, and a better emphasis of offering a much wider vary of well being information.
