Apple shipped 6.8 million smartwatches worldwide in Q3 2019, rising an above-average 51 percent from 4.5 million in Q3 2018. Apple Watch remains a long way ahead of the chasing pack and its global smartwatch marketshare has grown from 45 percent to 48 percent in the past year. Apple Watch continues to fend off strong competition from hungry rivals like Fitbit and Samsung. Apple Watch owns half the worldwide smartwatch market and remains the clear industry leader… More here.

I have been playing with the Vivosmart 4 and the Vivoactive 4S from Garmin recently and while they do well in terms of fitness metrics and accuracy there is no sense of a watch in either. Obviously this could be expected with the Vivosmart, but the Vivoactive feels hard to use at times and very basic as a day to day companion.

I may not like how Apple displays fitness stats and the ring system, but in every single way, apart from battery life, it kills ‘all’ of the competition with ease. From Fitbit to Samsung to Garmin and the rest, the Apple Watch as a device is in another league. Whether this is down to the lock in to the iPhone or a variety of other reasons, it is simply not like other smartwatches. It feels like the original iPhone when compared to what else was on the market at the time. The rest have a lot of catching up to do.

Categories: Apple, Smart Watches, Wareable, Watches