The Apple Watch is considered to be the most popular smartwatch on the market, but the fruit company does have its share of troubles; no one stays on top forever. The Cupertino, California company saw Apple Watch sales decline by 55% in Q2 2016, down from 3.6 million units to 1.6 million units. In contrast to Apple's decline though, Samsung experienced a good upswing.
The Korean giant saw its smartwatch sales rise by 51% year-over-year (YOY), which is good news for Samsung indeed. The International Data Corporation (IDC) says that Apple Watch sales decline can be attributed to the anxious nature of customers as they're aware that the Apple Watch 2 will arrive in a matter of weeks.
Samsung was not the only company to gain as a result of Q2: Lenovo also saw its smartwatch shipments increase by 75% (300,000 total), showing that Apple is one of the few giants that suffered a huge drawback in Q2. Smartwatch shipments overall fell by 32%, but the slump doesn't really explain why Samsung, Lenovo, and others experienced some measure of growth (Samsung an additional measure) while Apple declined sharply.
Numbers are numbers, and there are a lot of factors to consider, but this latest data shows that no company, no matter how high they rise, is immune from falling. Sure, the Apple Watch 2 announcement in September can always revive Apple's fortunes (and Apple is still rolling in fortune in the smartwatch market), but the latest numbers are a reminder that the smartwatch market is still fragile and few manufacturers need to put all their investment in the smartwatch market.
