Apple Watch ECG reading

The Apple Watch has turned into one of the most popular Apple-branded products out there. Based on the latest research, it appears the smartwatch is still maintaining its dominant lead against the competition.

Counterpoint Research has the latest data to share this week. According to the data, Apple Watch shipments increased 49 percent year-over-year, and it looks like one in every three smartwatches shipped in the last quarter was an Apple Watch. Unfortunately, Counterpoint Research doesn’t have any exact figures to share. But that isn’t surprising, considering Apple has never shared that information, either.

The technology baked into the Apple Watch is helping to make it a successful device:

“Commenting on the major shift in the market, Counterpoint Research Analyst, Satyajit Sinha, noted, “Apple Watch shipments grew a solid 49% YoY despite the weak demand for its iPhones. Apple continues to focus on the health-related features like ECG and fall detection in the Apple Watch Series 4. The ECG capability in the Apple Watch is the most desirable feature, according to our latest Consumer Lens survey. Apple has now received approval on its ECG features from healthcare authorities of Hong Kong and 19 other countries including France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the UK.”

Sinha, further added, “The heart rate sensor for health monitoring, GPS and pedometer sensors for fitness, and NFC embedded for payment are some of the key integrated technologies. Related use-cases and in addition to notifications with cellular capability are driving the smartwatch adoption.”

However, it appears that battery life is still a point of contention for some potential buyers:

“However, limited battery life remains a pain point for consumer’s decision-making process, irrespective of region and price band.”

Apple Watch saw a global shipment percentage of 35.8%. In second place, Samsung with 11.1%. Fitbit saw a nice bump when compared to last year, jumping up to 5.5 percent.

That’s definitely a solid marketshare for Apple, and it will be hard to take that away from them. Especially with new features like sleep tracking rumored to be coming down the line.

And while we don’t know exact numbers from Apple, we do know that the company’s Wearables, Home, and Accessories category earned itself $5.1 billion in revenue in the last quarter.

Do you think Samsung can take Apple’s crown in this regard?

[via Counterpoint Research]