Smartwatch Shipments Cut In Half, Delays A Huge Factor

There wasn’t that much demand for smartwatches, to begin with, at least when compared to smartphones, but it would seem the latest quarter was not kind to devices like the Apple Watch. Shipments decreased by up to 51.6 percent. To be fair, however, a lot of the problem can also be traced to delays on the part of the companies.

As Fortune notes, the whole smartwatch industry is not looking very good at the moment. Q3 only saw 2.7 million devices of shipped, which is a significant dip compared to the same time the previous year. This data comes from the International Data Corporation, which submitted its findings via its Monday report.

In 2015, 5.6 million smartwatches were shipped during Q3. The higher numbers coincide with the large-scale availability of the Apple Watch, thus allowing manufacturers to produce the gadget in higher quantities. This time around, Apple was a little late in making their wearable available for Q3, which explains the lower digits.

The same goes for Google, which chose to delay the release of the OS for its Android Wear 2.0. The decision caused some confusion among manufacturers who might have chosen to wait until after the holiday season to start shipping out the goods. Thanks to the scarcity of newer smartwatch brands, the IDC report indicates that vendors were forced to sell older models.

It is worth noting that even within the lagging smartwatch market, Apple is still leading with its latest offering, Tech Crunch notes. The American brand shipped over 1.1 million units of their wearable during Q3. It’s still much lower compared to previous years, but considering the time and release factor, it’s a decent performance.

Speaking of the Apple Watch, it would appear that some consumers decided to hold off on buying older versions of the device to wait for the September announcement of the next iteration. Leaked details told these consumers as much, which likely contributed to the lower shipment numbers.