Apple Watch sales have declined as consumers await the expected hardware refresh happening later this 2016. (Photo : Getty Images/Justin Sullivan)
Apple registered a staggering decline in smartwatch sales comparing the numbers from last year and now. After registering a 3.6 million unit sales last year, Apple Watch sales now only show 1.6 million units sold.
The numbers were part of a report made by IDC last July 21 which is attributed to the fact that people are waiting the hardware refresh expected to happen later this year. Worth noting as well is that Apple was the only one who registered declines while other brands registered gains.
According to senior research analyst Jitesh Ubrain, consumers have held off from purchasing smartwatches since early 2016. Nevertheless, the slowdown in smartwatch sales has not affected Apple’s rankings.
Apple still leads the pack with a 47 percent share and is still far from its brand rivals. In fact, the 1.6 million unit sales more than doubled the 600,000 million units that Samsung was able to ship.
The Samsung Gear S2 was able to help the company to improve with a 16 percent jump in the market behind Apple. Following the Korean company were Lenovo (300,000 million, 9 percent), LG (300,000 million, 8 percent) and Garmin (100,000 million, 4 percent) to round up the top five according to Information Week.
Another thing worth noting is that the Apple decline not only affects the Cupertino company’s fortunes but the entire market as well. Most vendors are expected to face similar issues for the rest of the year with improvements expected to set in by 2017.
Additionally, the Apple Watch has remained unchanged in the last 14 months. An Apple Watch 2 is widely speculated as coming as early as September, a wearable that could debut alongside the expected release of the iPhone 7.
As far as potential improvements, potential features of the Apple Watch 2 remain scarce. It could debut with better connectivity options such as LTE or improvements in the design facet to address fashion and style concerns.
According to Forbes, the Apple Watch 2 could come out with a dual-camera setup as well as improved capabilities such as functioning without the aid of an iPhone to transmit data.
Check out the video tied up to a possible Apple Watch 2 coming.
