Apple will establish leadership in the smartwatch segment in the next 4 years, a recent study reveals. The IDC Worldwide Quarterly Wearable Device Tracker predicts that the iPhone maker will capture 25.9% of smartwatch market share by 2023.
Other brands, which run on operating systems such as Android, Tizen and WearOS will make up the rest of the market share, the report says.
Overall sales of smartwatches are predicted to grow to 131.6 million units from 91.8 million units between 2019 and 2023 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9.4%.
Research manager at IDC Jitesh Ubrani said, “Among all watches, close to half will have the ability to connect to a cellular network by 2023 as consumers along with enterprises and healthcare look to free the watch from the phone and as telcos push forward subsidies or financing options for watches with cellular service.”
Watches, earwear to drive wearables
According to IDC, the global shipment of wearable devices will grow at a CAGR of 7.9%. Global shipments are expected to grow to 302.3 million units by 2023, from 222.9 million units expected by the end of this year.
Over 70% of these shipments will be constituted by earwear devices and smartwatches. Ear-worn devices are projected to grow to 105.3 million in 2023 from 72 million units expected this year.
“Ear-worn devices, while still centered on providing audio, will nudge into other areas like language translation, smart assistant deployment, and coaching,” said IDC research director Ramon T. Llamas.