The sales of smartwatches have dropped by more than 50%

It is noted that Apple had the biggest drop, although they still maintained their position as the overall leader of the worldwide smartwatch market.

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According to the newest report from IDC, the worldwide smartwatch market experienced a round of growing pains in the third quarter of 2016, resulting in a "year-over-year decline in shipment volumes." To put that in numbers, the sales dropped by 51.6 percent, aka from 5.6 million sold last year in this quarter to 2.7 million this year.

The sales of smartwatches have dropped by more than 50% | TweakTown.com

It is noted that Apple had the biggest drop - almost 72 percent, although they still maintained their position as the overall leader of the worldwide smartwatch market. Interestingly, the highest growth among the leading companies was Garmin, who has tripled its sales to 600,000 watches in 3Q 2016.

However, we also have to have in mind that last year we had more new smartwatches in the market. In the Q3 2015, Apple's Watch had widespread retail availability after a limited online launch. Meanwhile, the second generation Apple Watch was only available in the last two weeks of 3Q16. Samsung has yet to release their Gear S3, and Pebble 2 sales started in September.

Jitesh Ubrani senior research analyst for IDC Mobile Device Trackers explained this trend in a statement.

It has also become evident that at present smartwatches are not for everyone. Having a clear purpose and use case is paramount, hence many vendors are focusing on fitness due to its simplicity. However, moving forward, differentiating the experience of a smartwatch from the smartphone will be key and we're starting to see early signs of this as cellular integration is rising and as the commercial audience begins to pilot these devices.

NEWS SOURCE:idc.com

Lana has a passion for technology and science. She spends her time looking for the latest and most interesting technology and science news. Her passion is in gadgets, wearables, and other cool and interesting applications of technology or science. She also spends her free time gaming in MMOs like World of Warcraft. She has prior experience covering technology for publications and breaking news. If she’s not doing either, you might just find her exploring the metaverse in VR. Lana wants to expand TweakTown’s coverage of mobile, wearables and gadgets while also bringing her experience with science and general tech to TweakTown. Her area of coverage is around science, technology, smartphones, wearables, and general neat gadgets. She hopes to one day be able to drive around in her self-driving car while she schedules an appointment for a SpaceX trip to the moon on her smartwatch.

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