Apple hasn’t released official sales figures for the Apple Watch, but data from Strategy Analytics suggest the wearable sold approximately 4 million units last quarter – giving it a “dominant” 75% share of the global smartwatch market. Impressive for a product that only launched three months ago.
There’s been a lot of hyperbole of late about the perceived “failure” of the Apple Watch, as the sales figures slowed down significantly after an explosive launch. However, Apple CEO Tim Cook stated at the Q3 earnings call that “sales of the watch did exceed our expectations,” and that more importantly, “customer satisfaction is off the charts.”
The report also states that global smartwatch shipments overall rose by a massive 457% over last year, thanks to the popularity of the Apple Watch. By comparison, rivals Samsung sold roughly one-tenth as many smartwatches as Apple last quarter, accounting for just 7.5% of the global marketshare.
It doesn’t look like Apple is planning to reveal official data any time soon, but this research suggests it will take a minor miracle for another company to properly challenge the Apple Watch dominance of the sector. Sales may have dipped since the frenzy of launch day, but the numbers are still pretty high.
Only Apple could rake in “around a billion dollars in sales” on a new product category and still be under this much scrutiny.