The Apple Watch has surpassed 100 million global sales, and is growing faster than at any point in its history.
That’s from estimations by Above Avalon, a financial analyst service specialising in Apple.
The company has estimated that the Apple Watch has a base of 102 million users since the first smartwatch was launched in 2015.
Evidence of that growth is also visible in the estimates. Of the 102 million, Avalon estimates that 30 million of those were shipped in the past 12 months – which represents more than 2015/16/17 combined.
The fact there are now three Apple Watch versions on sale with the Apple Watch SE, and at a mixture of price points, is certainly fuelling that rapid growth. And there are now clearer benefits to owning an Apple Watch for users looking to jump in.
The company has crystalized the health and fitness benefits of the device, and introduced cutting-edge features such as ECG, SpO2, and heart rate notifications. Add to that other benefits such as Apple Pay and fewer people are unclear about what the Apple Watch can actually do.
Avalon also estimates that 10% of iPhone users now use the watch – perhaps showing how much growth potential Apple Watch has. That number jumps to 35% of iPhone users in the US, and Avalon extrapolates that if the same level of iPhone users globally used Apple Watch as the US, that would equal 350 million installs.
With services now being introduced for the Apple Watch specifically – namely Apple Fitness+ – the company has more chance of tempting iPhone users to jump on board.
Remember all of these numbers are estimates – educated guesses. But in terms of smartwatches, the Apple Watch is lightyears ahead – but we already knew that.
According to Statista, Fitbit has also shipped a similar amount since 2010, with 105 million devices sold although it only estimates that 30 million are in active use.
How we test
James is the co-founder of Wareable, and he has been a technology journalist for 15 years.
He started his career at Future Publishing, James became the features editor of T3 Magazine and T3.com and was a regular contributor to TechRadar – before leaving Future Publishing to found Wareable in 2014.
James has been at the helm of Wareable since 2014 and has become one of the leading experts in wearable technologies globally. He has reviewed, tested, and covered pretty much every wearable on the market, and is passionate about the evolving industry, and wearables helping people achieve healthier and happier lives.