Apple Watch outpaces the smartwatch market, by far
Apple Watch shipments increased 21% YoY in Q1, “the fastest growth among the Top 10 brands,” says Counterpoint. Global smartwatch shipments grew 4% in the same period.
Counterpoint Research’s Principal Analyst Anshika Jain said, “Apple has captured the highest shipment share of 23% and emerged as the strongest performer in Q1 2026, driven by the continued success of its refreshed lineup.
“While North America contributed over half of the total shipments of Apple, China and Europe recorded the fastest growth for the brand. The addition of meaningful health upgrades and the affordable SE 3 attracted new buyers.”
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In China, Huawei drove 15% sector growth and took around 40% share.
“Huawei’s increased focus on health features such as sleep tracking, emotional wellbeing monitoring, and arrhythmia analysis, expansion across price tiers, and seamless ecosystem integration supported its growth.”
Health and satellite support are defining this market and analysts seem very curious to see if the introduction of AI in wearables will also generate a market bounce.
While performance will be the limitation there given the small amount of memory on these devices, the notion that you’ll be able to use a wearable for a wide number of productive tasks will be interesting to see play out – and a real enabler for accessibility, I suspect.
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