By releasing Gear Sport and Galaxy Watch at a discounted price, Samsung has joined the list of top 5 wearable companies in India
Samsung smartwatches(Source – samsung.com)
Samsung has overtaken Apple to become a leader in India’s smartwatch market in the third quarter of 2018, according to research firm International Data Corporation (IDC).
Although the IDC report did not reveal the specific smartwatch market share for Samsung, it said that the growing demand for wearable devices had helped the company in overtaking Apple to claim leadership in the third quarter of 2018.
Samsung wearables
As per IDC reports, Samsung returned to the top five wearable companies in India in Q3 2018. It stood fourth, replacing Fitbit, as its shipments tripled compared to the previous quarter. Samsung bundled Gear Sport and Galaxy Watch with the launch of Samsung Note 9 and later, offered them at a discounted price. This helped the brand in getting a strong momentum in this quarter.
Apple wearables
Apple shipped about 4.2 million of its models during the third quarter of this year. The shipments grew 54 per cent over the same period last year. The company has a market share of 13.1 per cent in the wearables segment, up from 10.3 per cent during the same period of last year. However, the premium brand witnessed a dip in the smartwatch segment due to tough competition from brands like Xiaomi, Samsung, GOQii, Fossil and Titan in India.
India wearables market
The overall India wearables market witnesses a 17 per cent year-over-year (YoY) growth in the third quarter of this year as vendors shipped a total of 897,000 units in the country. However, the overall shipments declined 11 per cent from the previous quarter largely because of the double-digit decline in the basic wearables market.
IDC said smart wearables market had achieved a double-digit growth and vendors shipped 102,000 units.
