Samsung's yearly smartwatch growth boosted by Galaxy Watch 4 sales - but Apple continues to dominate

Samsung experienced a 58% year-on-year growth in Q2 2022, shipping enough smartwatches to overtake Huawei and finish as the quarter's second-biggest wearable vendor.

That's according to market analysts Canalys, who report that Samsung saw its market share leap to 8.9%, shipping a total of 2.8 million units.

This strong performance, the firm says, is mostly thanks to sales of the Galaxy Watch 4 and Galaxy Watch 4 Classic - both released in late 2021 and featuring a revamped Wear OS 3.

The figures still pale in comparison to Apple, however, with the market leader posting a market share of 26.4% and 8.4 million units shipped in Q2.

Still, this still only represents modest growth of 6% year-on-year, and, for reference, Apple's market share in Q2 2021 was a much higher 31.1%, which suggests Samsung could be ready to begin eating into its rival's huge advantage.

Whether it does, of course, is another matter. Apple typically posts very strong results in Q3 and Q4 off the back of its annual September announcements, and, this year, there's the added factor that the company has entered a new market with the Apple Watch Ultra.

With the Apple Watch Series 8 and Watch SE 2 launching, too, it would be no surprise to see the Cupertino giant recapture some of that lost momentum in Q3 2022 - even with the recent launch of Samsung's Galaxy Watch 5 and Galaxy Watch 5 Pro.

We're still expecting plenty more smartwatches to arrive in 2022 and shake the market up, as well, so stay tuned for who comes out on top over the second half of the year.