Samsung nabs top 3 position in smartwatch market as it switches over to Google’s Wear OS

Ben Schoon | Aug 26 2021 - 7:08 am PT

The smartwatch market is dominated by Apple, but other players are constantly shifting the metrics. This year, Samsung has managed to join the top three in the smartwatch market with the likes of Apple and Huawei.

Counterpoint Research today published a report on the smartwatch market, finding that it has grown 27% since Q2 of 2020. In this report, it’s revealed that the Apple Watch user base is likely over 100 million at this point despite the brand actually losing a few points in overall marketshare.

Samsung, though, is the big winner in the Q2 2021 results. Samsung saw 43% YoY growth in a “quick recovery” from a rough 2020. This reveal comes just as Samsung has launched its Galaxy Watch 4 series with Google’s Wear OS on board.

Of course, all of the heavy lifting for this smartwatch market milestone came from Samsung’s Tizen, not Google’s Wear OS. The Galaxy Watch 4 is off to a good start with stock already dwindling, but this report credits the “steady popularity” of the Galaxy Watch 3 and Watch Active 2 for earning the company this position. Samsung is currently estimated to hold about 7.6% of the global smartwatch market, a ways behind Huawei’s 9.3% and Apple’s 28%.

What about the rest of Wear OS? It’s somewhere in the unmarked “other” section.

Garmin was another big player in the past year, with the company’s fitness-focused smartwatches growing in shipments by over 60%, earning it a spot in the top five and about 5.8% of the market. Budget smartwatches were the real hit, though, with 547% growth in the past year. North America also continued to be the largest market for smartwatches with India being the fastest-growing market.