Smartwatch sales show sharp decline, report finds

The Apple Watch remained the market leader but it sent just over one million units in the third quarter of 2016 (July – September).

During exactly the same period in 2015, it shipped 3.9 million. Of the five leading brands, just Garmin revealed increase but its amounts stayed low.

Nonetheless, this was a period before new versions were released, experts said.

However, it still implies that consumer appetite is weak, said Jitesh Ubrani from IDC.

“It has become evident that, at present, smartwatches aren’t for everyone,” he said.

“Having a definite purpose and use case is paramount, hence many vendors are focusing on fitness due to its simplicity.”

Apple has positioned its latest version of the Watch as a workout device rather than a luxury fashion accessory – it discontinued the gold edition of its first wearable, which sold at $10,000 (£8,000), last month.

The new variant can monitor swimming action and a special variation, in partnership with fitness giant Nike, is expected to go on sale on Friday, 28.

“This latest quarter is not a true representation of what’s occurring with wearables,” said industry analyst Ben Wood from CCS Insight.

“The new Apple Watch was looming, Samsung has announced new products that aren’t shipping yet and Google has delayed another launch of Android Wear.”

IDC looked only at smartwatch brands which run third party apps in its market report.

Apple’s year-on-year decline with regards to its Watch apparatus shipping was 71.6%

Samsung sent 0.4 million of its watches in Gear2 Gear and both and 2016

Suffered the largest drop with shipments down by 73.3%

Pebble additionally slowed from 0.2m to 0.1m shipping

The tech giants face enormous rivalry from traditional watchmakers, Ben Wood considers.

“We truly consider the growing number of so-called smart analogue watches are where the main activity will be in 2017, particularly as well-established watch brands like Fossil increase the amount of smarter versions they offer though conventional watch retail channels,” he said.