Unit shipment forecast of smart wristwear worldwide 2016-2026

Smartwatch shipments worldwide are forecast to grow in the following years, increasing from 37 million units in 2016 to over 402 million units by 2027. Smartwatches are a major segment of the global wearables industry, contributing significantly to the global unit shipments of wearable devices.

Apple’s growing smartwatch market share

    Introduced in April 2015, the Apple Watch has rapidly increased its popularity and was the leading smartwatch vendor as of the first quarter of 2020, overtaking companies such as Samsung and Fitbit, and Xiaomi in its rise to global dominance. Although Apple’s major source of revenue is from iPhone sales, the company also receives a significant amount of revenue from the sales of their wearable devices, which account for over 10 percent of their total revenue as of the latest quarter.

Why purchase a Smartwatch?

   Consumer intentions for buying a smartwatch have fluctuated, but have overall remained relatively stable over the past few years. Smartwatches perform a majority of functions ranging from checking notifications/texts to GPS tracking and navigation. Consumers found fitness to be the most important feature of smart watches followed by communication, health/fitness, and maps. Due to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, the global wearables market was forecast to decrease in growth in 2020 compared to the growth rates in 2019.