Continuing its lead over rivals like Samsung and Fitbit, Apple Watch preserved first position as its share in the global Smartwatch Market reached 48 percent in the third quarter of this year from 45 percent in the very same quarter last year, according to a report by market research company Method Analytics.

Global Smartwatch deliveries grew an outstanding 42 percent each year to reach 14 million systems in the third quarter of 2019, stated the report.

“Apple shipped 6.8 million smartwatches worldwide in Q3 2019, rising an above-average 51 percent from 4.5 million in Q3 2018,” Neil Mawston, Executive Director at Strategy Analytics, said in a statement.

“Apple Watch continues to fend off strong competitors from starving competitors like Fitbit and Samsung. Apple Watch owns half the worldwide smartwatch market and remains the clear market leader,” Mawston added.

Samsung held 2nd place in the smartwatch market as its share leapt from 11 percent to 13 percent throughout the past year.

The marketplace share for Fitbit, which clung on to third position, fell to 11 percent this quarter, below 15 percent a year ago.

“Samsung shipped 1.9 million smartwatches worldwide in Q3 2019, practically doubling from 1.1 million a year back. Samsung’s international smartwatch market share has actually went from 11 percent to 13 percent during the past year,” stated Steven Waltzer, Senior Analyst at Strategy Analytics.

Samsung’s new designs, such as Galaxy Watch Active 2, should allow the South Korean tech giant to enhance its worldwide smartwatch presence in Q4, Waltzer stated.

Fitbit, which previously this month entered into an agreement to be gotten by Google, delivered 1.6 million smartwatches worldwide in Q3 2019.

“Fitbit continues to underperform the smartwatch market average. Fitbit has had a hard time to take on Apple Watch at the greater end of the smartwatch market, while its most current Versa Lite design has struggled to excite consumers at the lower end,” Mawston stated.

“Fitbit’s current takeover by Google will be a relief to the company, as Fitbit is under rising competitive pressure from Apple, Samsung, Garmin, Huawei, Xiaomi, and others.

“The big question now on everyone’s lips is what Google plans to do with Fitbit, and whether Google will expand or contract Fitbit’s well-known hardware, running system, and healthcare, sport and physical fitness services,” Mawston added.

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