Apple dominates smartwatch market in Q3

Global smartwatch shipments exceeded six million in Q3, increasing 60 per cent year-on-year

Apple shipped the most smartwatches in Q3 with 2.8 million units, making up 45.6 per cent of global shipments, according to the latest Canalys figures.

The analyst attributed this to the launch of the vendor's Series 1 and Series 2 Apple Watches towards the end of the quarter.

Worldwide smartwatch shipments passed 6.1 million in Q3 2016, a 60 per cent increase year on year.

Canalys analyst Daniel Matte said: "While the new models are selling well, there are still unsold first-generation Apple Watches in the channel. Q4 performance will be key to better assessing the long-term prospects of the improved Watch models. Apple needs to make a strong marketing push during the holiday shopping season, especially to highlight new and compelling apps for its platform.

"Meanwhile, its renewed focus on fitness functionality puts it in more direct competition with Fitbit. The inclusion of GPS by Apple and many other vendors now poses a big threat to traditional GPS watches and fitness trackers."

Samsung came in second, contributing 18.3 per cent of the total shipments with over 1.1 million watches. This is despite the ongoing Note 7 saga having an impact on its product release schedule and available resources.

Fitbit had strong growth in EMEA and the US, but struggled in Asia, accounting for 17.2 per cent of watches shipped worldwide.

According to Canalys, shipments from Huawei, Lenovo and LG all fell from a lack of product refreshes.

The market for basic bands grew 18 per cent sequentially to 11.5 million shipments in Q3. Overall wearable band shipments - including smartwatches - grew 31 per cent year on year, reaching 17.6 million.