Apple Watch sales plunge drags down smart watch and wearables market

Sales of Apple Watches are plummeting, according to the latest figures from box counters IDC, with shipments declining by 72 per cent, year-on-year, in the three months to the end of September.

IDC claimed that just 1.1 million Apple Watch devices were shipped in the period, compared to 3.9 million in the same period a year ago.

This huge slump suggests interest in the devices has waned massively since they were first launched, although the firm is still the biggest smartwatch vendor in the market with a 41.3 per cent market share.

However, this too is still a big fall from the 70 per cent market share it enjoyed in the same period last year, as it cedes ground to rivals.

Apple will be hoping its new Apple Watch Series 2 range of devices, unveiled in September, and were only included in the last two weeks of IDC's quarterly data measurements, will reverse that trend.

Fitness-focused firm Garmin took second place in the market for shipments in the quarter at 600,000 and a market share of 20.5 per cent putting it ahead of Samsung at 400,000 and Lenovo and Pebble on just 100,000.

While Samsung's shipments were low, they did represents a nine per cent increase year-on-year, taking it from 6.4 per cent of the market to 14.4 per cent.

Overall, though, Apple's slump dragged the wearables market down, with shipments falling 51.6 per cent from 5.6 million shipments in the third quarter of 2015 to 2.7 million this year.

IDC research manager Ramon Llamas said that despite the slump the wearable market had perhaps been caught in a moment of stasis during the third quarter, with all major vendors waiting until closer to Christmas to issues new devices and updates.

"Apple revealed a new look and feel to watchOS that did not arrive until the launch of the second generation watch at the end of September. Google's decision to hold back Android Wear 2.0 has repercussions for its OEM partners as to whether to launch devices before or after the holidays," he said.

"Samsung's Gear S3, announced at IFA in September, has yet to be released. Collectively, this left vendors relying on older, aging devices to satisfy customers."