3.5 million Apple Watches shipped in Q2 2018, Asia takes to the LTE version
Published : Tuesday, 31 July, 2018
The impressive 3.5 million Apple watches shipped in Q2 2018 spell out success loud and clear, with 30% over the last year’s figures. Smartwatches in general are now faring extremely well all over the world, with 10 million shipped by all brands, with Garmin and Fitbit as the readers. The trend for wearable devices is still going strong, and vendors are diversifying their range of products targeting very specific groups of customers. All the activity by different vendors led to Apple's loss of its position, as its smartphone market share dropped from 43% in Q1 2018 to 34% in Q2 2018. Apple Watch is growing ever more popular in Asia, with shipments to Asia (China excluded) exceeding 250,000. LTE is by far the most popular, with 60% of the total volume. In Q2 2018, the cell-linked Series 3 of the Apple wearable gadget was, in fact, the best-shipping in the Asian market.
Experts believe that the fact that Apple has undertaken international expansion through operators has brought quick success in the Asian Pacific region. After the Apple Watch Series 3 was launched, Australian, Japanese and Singaporean operators were the first to establish partnerships with Apple, to be followed by South Korea, Thailand and India in the last quarter. Operators are now able to sell connected gadgets other than smartphones, which allows them generate extra profits by providing data services. An unexpected country on this list is India, but the strategy undertaken by Reliance Jio and Airtel allow them to retain their most valuable customers in a tough market.
The threat from Apple’s competitors is increasing, as they have grown to over 250,000 shipments. Various vendors are coming out with different versions of products continuously, and between a year ago and now the choice has greatly expanded. Now Samsung and Google are slated to launch their Galaxy and Pixel wearables, so Apple needs to find a way to refresh their position in the market, especially in ones like the US market, where its current penetration has begun to adjust.
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