Shipments have now reached 7 million, Canalys says

Nov 5, 2015 09:07 GMT  ·  By

Apple is the leading smartwatch manufacturer right now, but its Watch has managed to set a new record, as the company has shipped a total of 7 million units since the official launch earlier this year.

According to analyst firm Canalys, this means that Apple has actually shipped more smartwatches than all the other vendors did together in the previous five quarters.

What’s more, Apple actually shipped more than 300,000 watches in the third quarter of the year, and Canalys says that no other company got even close to this figure. Pebble was the only one to actually meet expectations thanks to its Pebble Time Steel model that helped ship a total of 200,000 units, according to the firm.

Shipments, not sold units

What’s very important to note, however, is that these numbers do not reflect actual sales of the device, but only shipments, so they show how many units have been sent to retailers to make them available for customers. Actual sales figures have never been provided, but Apple’s secrecy is not a surprising thing anymore.

In Watch’s case, there’s no doubt that the release of watchOS 2 helped a lot, especially because it brought several new features and opened new opportunities for developers who wanted to bring their apps on your wrist. More information on this is available in our Apple Watch with watchOS two review here.

“After experiencing significant supply chain constraints early on, Apple managed to overcome its production struggles with the Apple Watch and is building momentum going into Q4,” said Analyst Daniel Matte. “watchOS 2 has brought native apps to the platform, and new colors and styles have refreshed the lineup, but Apple needs to continue to generate demand six months after launch,” VP and Principal Analyst Chris Jones added.

As far as the bands are concerned, Fitbit and Xiaomi managed to lead this side of the market, with the Chinese having actually shipped more than 10 million Mi Band units during the quarter. Fitbit also posted an important growth thanks to the Charge HR (which isn’t quite the newest device, but still performing very well).

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