Canalys released its report on the global wearables market in Q4 and the entire 2022. The numbers revealed 50 million shipped units between October and December, which was a massive 18% decline – the biggest since data is collected and analyzed.
All five major companies – Apple, Xiaomi, Huawei, Samsung, and Google, saw a YoY decline in shipments during the holiday period, and only Cupertino saw annual growth for the full calendar year.
Canalys quoted the “challenging macroeconomic environment in Q4” as the main reason for the decline across the board. Apple remained the runaway leader, being the default choice for all iPhone users, while Google managed to stay in second thanks to the Pixel Watch, despite Fitbit devices falling 25%.
Canalys splits the wearables into three categories – Basic band, basic watch, and smartwatch. The differences between them are getting murkier with every new device, and Canalys said smartwatches would grow at around 10%; however, the decline in interest for basic bands would set the total wearables market at a modest 2% rise.
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