Samsung’s Wear OS switch boosts market share to over 10%, as Fitbit shrinks

Kyle Bradshaw | May 31 2022 - 8:52 am PT

According to the latest data on wearables, Samsung’s market share has grown significantly since switching the Galaxy watch series to Wear OS. Meanwhile, Fitbit has seen a dip since being acquired by Google.

Last year, Samsung and Google announced their collaboration on Wear OS 3, creating a platform with the best elements of the Android based platform and Tizen. As part of that effort, Samsung used Wear OS 3 instead of Tizen to build its most recent smartwatches, the Galaxy Watch 4 and Watch 4 Classic. In fact, Samsung is so far the only wearables maker with a Wear OS 3 device on the market.

In a new report from Counterpoint Research, this change from Tizen to Wear OS seems to have paid off for the company, putting Samsung firmly into second place in terms of market share for Q1 2022. Compared to its 7.8% share last year, Samsung wearables accounted for 10.1% of global shipments, while Apple maintained its lead with 36.1%. Notably, Samsung is the only Wear OS device maker to break into the report’s top 8.

Down the line from there, we find companies like Huawei and Xiaomi maintaining their dominance with affordable wearables. On the whole, Counterpoint says wearables saw significant growth this year compared to last year, with an increase of about 13%.

Meanwhile, where Fitbit had seen a solid 4.1% of sales this same period last year, the Google acquisition saw a much smaller 2.7% market share for Q1 2022. That said, Fitbit didn’t release any new devices in the Sense or Versa lines last year, making for a quiet year for the fitness brand.

With any luck, things should be looking up for Fitbit in the near future, between an integration with the Pixel Watch this fall and early signs of a Sense 2 and Versa 4 on the horizon. Fitbit has also previously announced its intentions to create a Wear OS powered device.