Worldwide smartwatch market declines as shipments fall 32%

Smartwatch vendors shipped 3.5 million units in the second quarter of 2016, which was down substantially from the 5.1 million shipped a year ago.

Apple held the top rank by shipping 1.6 million watches. However, it was the only vendor among the top 5 to experience an annual decline in shipments. In fairness to Apple, the year-over-year comparison is to the initial launch quarter of the Apple Watch, which is in many ways the same product offered in the most recent quarter with price reductions.

“Consumers have held off on smartwatch purchases since early 2016 in anticipation of a hardware refresh, and improvements in WatchOS are not expected until later this year, effectively stalling existing Apple Watch sales,” said Jitesh Ubrani, senior research analyst, IDC Mobile Device Trackers...Read More