If there was ever any doubt about Apple’s sheer level of dominance in the smartwatch market, it’s worth considering the latest research from industry analyst Counterpoint. The firm has published the results of its research into the smartwatch market for the third quarter of 2022. It’s looking rather rosy for the market as a whole, with a year-on-year shipment growth of 30%, but it’s looking especially rosy for the market leader. Apple’s smartwatch shipments grew 48% year-on-year, thanks to the success of the newly released Apple Watch 8 series. This helped bring Apple’s overall smartwatch sales up to a point where it represented 50.6% of the so-called ‘high-level OS’ (HLOS) market for the period. This actually represents a slight drop from Q2, where it dominated with 54% of the HLOS market, but the lead is still pretty resounding. Samsung takes a distant second place to Apple in the high-end smartwatch market with 22.3% share, though this represents a 5% increase from Q2, thanks to strong sales of the Samsung Galaxy Watch 5. HLOS smartwatches are defined by their ability to install third party applications, which includes Apple’s Watch OS and Google’s (and Samsung’s) Wear OS, as well as the likes of Amazfit’s Zepp OS, Xiaomi’s Harmony OS, and Garmin’s GarminOS. Another interesting fact to emerge from Counterpoint’s research include the identity of the largest smartwatch market in the world. That honour now falls to India, which has experienced an astonishing 171% surge since Q3 2021 while China’s and Europe’s remained more or less static.
