Can Samsung Challenge Apple’s Smartwatch Dominance?

When Samsung unveiled the new Galaxy Note 9 smartphone at its “Unpacked” event on Thursday, the Korean electronics giant had one more thing (quite literally) up its sleeve: a new smartwatch. The Galaxy Watch, Samsung’s first wearable device in the Galaxy family, comes in two sizes (42 and 46 mm) and, in line with the company’s previous smartwatches, it will feature a round design closer to a traditional (albeit huge) wrist watch than the rectangular Apple Watch. Like the latter, the Galaxy Watch will come with a bunch of health features as well as water resistance and an LTE option. Its standout feature could be the battery life though, which Samsung claims to be “several days” on a single charge.

As the following chart, based on IDC estimates, shows, Samsung has a lot of ground to make up if it wants to challenge Apple’s dominant position in the smartwatch market. In 2017, the Cupertino-based company shipped 17.7 million watches compared to Samsung’s 3.6 million.

chartoftheday_15035_worldwide_smartwatch_shipments_n

Google Gains Ground in the Smart Speaker Market

Thanks to its head start in the prospering smart speaker market, Amazon stayed on top of the competition in the first quarter of 2018. According to the latest estimates from market research firm Strategy Analytics, the e-commerce giant shipped 4 million Echo devices in the first three months of the year, edging out its closest competitor Google by 1.6 million units.

Having extended its smart speaker line-up last year, Google gained some ground on Amazon though, growing its market share from 12.4 percent in the first quarter of 2017 to 26.5 percent in Q1 2018. Apple meanwhile failed to break into the Top 3 as the company shipped an estimated 600,000 HomePods between its release on February 9 and March 30.

Overall, the smart speaker market continues to grow, with global shipments nearly quadrupling from 2.4 to 9.2 million units year-over-year.

Smart Speaker Inforgraphic