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Cash-strapped buyers passing on smartwatches in favor of cheap fitness trackers
July 30, 2025
Many people are buying wearables to keep track of theirfitness routinesduring 2020’s COVID-19 pandemic, but many of them aren’t splurging on smartwatches. Instead, they’re going for the low-end activity trackers. This is a bit of a reversal, as that market was previously on the decline.
Canalys researchers havedeterminedthat North American wearable device shipments grew 10% year-over-year in the second quarter of 2020, but that it was primarily due tolow-priced fitness trackersthey could afford on a pandemic-influenced budget, particularly ones below $50. Fitbit may have fared better than most as its paid service helped those who couldn’t get training at gyms.
That wasn’t great news for most smartwatch makers, however. Fitbit and Samsung were partly hurt as they cleared out inventory before theSenseandGalaxy Watch 3arrived. Google’s Wear OS also took a sharp blow as stores closed and companies got ready for new watches using the much-improvedSnapdragon Wear 4100.
North American smartwatch shipments in 2020
It wasn’t bad news for everyone.Apple Watchshipments were still going strong, but the star of the show wasn’t the Series 5. While the high-end model was still Apple’s most popular, it was the $199 Series 3 that saw shipments grow 30% compared to the same time a year earlier. Price is clearly a key factor, and Apple may be well-positioned with anew low-cost Watchreportedly coming this fall.
Read more:The best smartwatches you can buy
Whether or not this continues isn’t certain. All the major companies are focused on 2021, Canalys said, but that doesn’t necessarily mean smartwatches will struggle. New models from Apple, Fitbit, Samsung, and others could lead to spikes. Canalys also noted that devices with “advanced health tracking” may stand out more versus “casual” trackers. Smartwatches might enjoy a resurgence, then, especially as people are worried about blood oxygen levels and other possible signs of COVID-19 infections.
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