New insights from analysts indicate that Google shipped 880,000 Pixel Watch units in Q4 2022, boosting the company to second place in the market.
The report from Canalys suggests that the debut smartwatch shifted enough units in its first three months of availability to help it capture 8% of the overall share and sneak ahead of Samsung, which fell to 5.9%.
According to the data, Apple also continued its streak as the resounding market leader, accounting for nearly 28% of all notebook shipments. Where the Pixel Watch was just under 1 million units shipped, Apple just pulled back with 14 million in the same period.
The numbers also seem to be pretty accurate as the required Google Pixel Watch app has recently passed 500,000 downloads. This suggests that most of what is in circulation has been sold.
The Pixel Watch may have seen decent popularity, but it’s important to note that Google’s top wearable figures are also supported by Fitbit sales.
While there are no details on which Fitbit devices were most popular, they appear to account for about 3 million of Google’s shipments.
But with Google continuing to nerf Fitbit smartwatches — be it by removing community features or removing the ability to use third-party apps — we’d expect the Pixel Watch to close the gap over generations to come.
If it’s going to do that, though, Google has plenty of issues to address with the Pixel Watch 2 — not the least of which is the lackluster battery life available in the debut model.
And it’s not just going to be about improving its own device or beating internal competition either, as the Apple Watch Series 9 and Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 are likely to be launched ahead of time and offer their own range of advancements.
By Conor Allison
Conor moved to Wareable Media Group in 2017, initially covering all the latest developments in smartwatches, fitness trackers and VR. He made a name for himself writing about trying on translation earphones on a first date and cycling with a portable airbag, as well as covering the latest industry releases.
After a stint as Review Editor at Pocket-lint, Conor returned to Wareable Media Group in 2022 as Editor-at-Large. Conor has become a wearables expert, helping people get more out of their wearable technology via Wareable’s substantial how-to-based guides.
He has also contributed to UK GQ, Wired, Metro, The Independent and The Mirror.