Apple Watch was half of all smartwatch sales in 2018, but its grip is loosening

The common consensus is that the wearables space is shrinking, but 2018 was the best year yet for smartwatch sales around the globe.

Smartwatch shipments increased by over 50% in the full year of 2018, according to new data from Strategy Analytics.

This report found the Apple Watch was the best selling device in 2018 with half of the market share in terms of shipments. Apple reportedly shipped 22.5 million smartwatches, while global shipments of all smartwatch brands sat at 45 million.

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That may sound like bad news for competing smartwatch manufacturers, but the likes of Samsung and Fitbit gained sales in 2018 at a high rate too. In 2017, Samsung sold 3.1 million smartwatches but the following year - almost certainly spurred on by the Samsung Galaxy Watch - saw the company increase to 5.3 million.

Fitbit sold half a million smartwatches in 2017, while 2018 saw the company go up to 5.5 million. That may sound like a big jump, but that's down to the fact the company only launched its first smartwatch in the last few months of 2017.

That's the Fitbit Ionic, which was only unveiled in August 2017 and went on sale soon after. 2018 saw the company continue to sell the Fitbit Ionic as well as offer the more affordable, and therefore quite popular, Fitbit Versa.

Garmin is the fourth biggest maker of smartwatch tech worldwide and the figures saw the company grow from 2.2 million shipments in 2017 to 3.2 million in 2018.

It's important to take these figures with a pinch of salt. They're based on shipments rather than pure sales, which means there may still be stock for these on shop shelves around the world.

Although these figures may not be 100% correct, and Apple is winning big in the smartwatch game, it's important to note that the space in general is growing faster than ever. 

No Wear OS manufacturers appear in that top four list, but other manufacturer shipments grew from 5.8 million in 2017 to 8.5 million in 2018, showing the space is growing as a whole.

That can only be a positive thing for those looking around for fitness devices or fashionable pieces of tech for their wrist.

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Via The Inquirer