The Pixel Watch seems to be a hit as Google takes second place in wearable market

Ben Schoon | Mar 11 2023 - 1:00 pm PT

After years of waiting, Google finally launched the Pixel Watch late last year alongside its latest generation of smartphones, and it appears the smartwatch is a bit of a hit for the company, with hundreds of thousands of units shipped in its first few months.

Canalys reports that Google shipped 880,000 Pixel Watch units in Q4 2022, the first three months that the smartwatch was available for sale. It was enough to help Google keep the second-place slot in the smartwatch market with 8% of the total shipment volume. That’s behind Apple’s commanding lead of nearly 28% and well above Samsung’s 5.9% share.

Of course, the vast majority of Google’s wearable shipments aren’t actually the Pixel Watch. Rather, it includes Fitbit devices, which make up the bulk of the four million units shipped in Q4 2022.

By comparison, Apple shipped just shy of 14 million smartwatches in the same period, while Samsung, Xiaomi, and Huawei hovered around three million. Wearable shipments as a whole have been dropping over the past year, with the market shrinking by 18% year-over-year. Google saw a drop of 25%, which was actually better than the 35% drop Samsung saw. Apple, unsurprisingly, held up with a 17% drop. Canalys also notes that the Pixel Watch managed to boost Google’s smartwatch growth by 16%.

There is one bit of evidence against this claim, as Google’s Pixel Watch app, required to use the watch, only recently surpassed 500,000 installs. But with the difference in shipments versus actual units sold, it still seems well within the realm of possibility.

Top comment by Lee Woods

Liked by 14 people

I'm fairly happy with the first generation Pixel Watch.

Hopefully the next generation has a faster processor so there is less hesitation when performing certain actions.

I would also prefer a flat display but with same case size.

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This comes as Google continues to de-emphasize Fitbit’s smartwatches, the Versa and Sense. The launch of those fitness-focused wearables last year saw many smartwatch features removed, such as third-party apps, and that’s something Google has only doubled down on.

Just recently, Google also announced the shutdown of some long-available Fitbit features, while the fitness app also saw multiple major outages through February. Meanwhile, Google has continued to build on the Pixel Watch, adding support for Fall Detection, among other improvements.

Of course, Google still has a long way to go with the Pixel Watch to catch up to its major competitors. Samsung and Apple both sell far more smartwatches than Google and Fitbit combined, but for a first-generation product that had high expectations, the Pixel Watch seems to be doing quite well.