The wearable band market has bounced back into growth with shipments rising 2 per cent during the second quarter of 2022, following a contraction of 3.7 per cent during the previous quarter, according to a report released this week by technology analysts Canalys.

During the second quarter, 41.7 million wearable bands were sold, with basic watches and smartwatches seeing sales increase by 46.6 per cent and 9.3 per cent respectively.,

Apple remains the dominant player, with a 26.4 per cent market share, followed by Samsung and Huawei with 8.9 per cent and 8.3 per cent respectively.

Samsung performed impressively during the second quarter, enjoying a growth of 58 per cent, with 2.8 million smartwatch sales shipped.

This allowed the South Korean company to overtake Huawei, which had previously occupied second place in terms of market share.

“Within the Android space, Samsung is leading in leveraging its watches to enhance its premium ecosystem user experience,” Canalys Analyst Cynthia Chen said, who noted that the latest releases from Samsung and Garmin and expected releases from Apple and Google in the coming months “are intensifying competition among premium smartwatches”.

“Smartwatch users are better informed about smartwatches and will choose the devices that offer the best tracking capabilities for their intended use, for general health tracking or sports performance tracking,” Chen added.

Moreover, the Canalys analyst explained that vendors must take into account a number of factors when creating and launching premium products in this space, all of which are important to consumers.

These include attractive designs, superior build quality, intuitive software, seamless ecosystem integration, as well as effective health tracking.

“While challenging, vendors must build experience and knowledge in developing software and tracking algorithms, combining them with a robust digital health strategy to win in the long term,” Chen concluded.