- The wearable band market leader Apple dropped 17% from its stronger quarter in 2021 as it returned to its regular launch schedule
- In the whole of 2022, basic and smartwatches rose mildly, but basic bands fell 39%, taking the whole wearable band market down by 5%
The global wearable band market witnessed an 18% shipment decline and reached 50 million units in Q4 2022, as per the latest report by Canalys. It further pointed out that it is the first double-digit decline for the market in a typically seasonally strong Q4 quarter. While the smartwatch category faced a double-digit decline of 17%, basic bands saw their ninth consecutive decline of 43%. On a mildly topside, the market for basic watches grew by 3% in this quarter.
According to the estimates, a majority of vendors felt the impact of the challenging macroeconomic environment in this quarter. The wearable band market leader Apple dropped 17% from its stronger quarter in 2021 as it returned to its regular launch schedule. Google attained the next position with 16% smartwatch growth with the release of its Pixel Watch. Canalys noted that Xiaomi, Huawei and Samsung all experienced big declines.
Canalys expects that with an 8% growth, smartwatches will fare better than the market for basic watches, which is expected to see a 6% growth. It further said that the development will centre on smartwatch OS, with more chances of connectivity and tracking features supported by pragmatic use-cases to debut on smartwatches, backed by consumers’ rising interest in advanced watches.
“The wearable band market is expected to grow at a modest 2% in 2023,” commented Canalys Analyst Cynthia Chen. “While we expect basic bands to continue declining, basic watches and smartwatches will grow, but growth will be capped below 10%. Vendors remain vigilant and will emphasize quality rather than quantity is given some recovery in consumer spending.”
Canalys is an independent analyst company which delivers smart market insights to IT, channel and service provider professionals around the world.
