Whereas the Apple Watch has proved in style for the reason that first one dropped in 2015, the tech big’s smartwatch has seen declining gross sales extra lately.
In accordance with new knowledge from Counterpoint Analysis, Apple’s smartwatch shipments declined a not insignificant 19% year-on-year in 2024, with the machine model experiencing declines in all areas besides India.
Counterpoint notes that the worldwide fall in Apple Watch gross sales was primarily pushed by a drop in gross sales within the North America, which represents greater than half of Apple’s smartwatch shipments.
Notably, this was the second yr in a row that Apple Watch gross sales suffered a decline. Certainly, the ultimate quarter of 2024 was the fifth consecutive quarter that Apple’s smartwatch shipments fell, in stark distinction to different main makers of smartwatches, which all skilled progress.
So, why is Apple having points getting the Apple Be careful of shops and onto folks’s wrists? In accordance with Counterpoint analyst Balbir Singh, the general decline in 2024 was all the way down to quite a few causes, together with a scarcity of serious upgrades to the Watch Sequence 10, which launched final fall.
Singh additionally famous that Apple didn’t introduce a Watch Extremely 3 or a brand new Watch SE eventually yr’s smartwatch launch occasion, which might have seemingly boosted gross sales.
The Apple Watch Extremely is the corporate’s premium Apple Watch and was final refreshed in 2023, whereas probably the most reasonably priced choice, the SE, was final up to date in 2022.
One more reason for declining gross sales may very well be that Apple’s smartwatches price greater than loads of the competing units in the marketplace, a few of which supply an honest vary of options.
“To make a comeback in 2025 and retain its market share,” Singh mentioned, “Apple must concentrate on just a few issues, together with the introduction of latest options, launch of [new] Watch SE and Watch Extremely fashions, and doable design upgrades.”
A variety of studies and leaks point out that each the Apple Watch Extremely 3 and Apple Watch SE 3 may arrive in September alongside the Sequence 11. If that’s the case, 2025 could be the yr that Apple Watch gross sales tick again up once more.
Apple declines to share official, detailed gross sales knowledge for the Apple Watch in its monetary studies. As an alternative, Apple teams Apple Watch gross sales beneath its “Wearables, House and Equipment” class, so solely third-party estimates can be found for particular Apple Watch unit gross sales.
A variety of analysis companies — Counterpoint amongst them — use a mixture of client surveys, market evaluation, and channel knowledge to generate estimates within the absence of official gross sales figures from Apple.
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