A new analytical report by Canalys covered wearables in China for Q3 2022. Rightly or wrongly, Canalys mixed wearable-bands with smartwatches to as to give local OEMSs an edge over Apple. That’s like mixing tricycles with Lamborghini race cars. With that said, the wearable-band market fell by 7.1% in Q3 in contrast to smartwatches that grew 16.8% mainly due to Apple Watch Ultra.
(Click on Chart to Enlarge)
According to Canalys, Apple’s new Watch Ultra has been a hit with local consumers with its recognizable design, driving growth in the US$700+ (approximately CNY 6299) segment.
Patently Apple broke Apple statistics out of the Canalys chart that mixed wearable-band and smartwatch statistics. Apple is not in the wearable-band market and therefore the statistics below focuses on the performance of Apple Watch alone. Apple delivered the best performance of any wearable device company in China for Q3-22 with a whopping 52.9% annual grow.
(Click on stats below to Enlarge)
In contrast, Huawei delivered -27.1%; Xiaomi delivered +6.5%; XTC delivered -7.5%; and OPPO delivered +22.2%.
For those wanting to review the mixed-bag wearables market statistics in more depth, review the full Canalys report. While the report by Canalys placed Apple in fourth spot due to being drowned by the sheer volume of cheap bands, the reality is that Apple stands out as the leader in smartwatches and being the only OEM driving the premium price space. Apple is clearly the standout winner, regardless of how Canalys tried to mask this fact.