3 reasons why the popularity of Apple Watch falls and what takes its place

According to a recent report by Contrapoint, the smartwatch market has just experienced its first decline. The report says that 7% fewer smartwatches were sent in 2024 than in 2023 and the dwindling popularity of Apple could be to blame.

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According to Controppoint, a stricter competition and weaker upgrade cycles were heated by 19% of the shipping quota of Apple Watch during this period.

“Despite the start of the S10 series for the 10th anniversary, Apple Watch recorded a decline in dynamics. The greatest driver of the decline was North America, in which the lack of Ultra 3 and the minimal feature upgrades in the S10 line -up caused consumers to hold back shopping,” said Anshika Jain, Senior Research analyst Anhika Jain.

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There are several reasons why Apple's Smart Wearable apparently lost its attraction last year. From a blood oxygen collection function, which could not escape patent disputes, to growing competition in the wearables room, the tech giant struggles against several forces that could keep its shipments lower.

1. The blood oxygen sensor that was never

Apple lost a patent case last year with the Masimo medical company via his blood oxygen sensor. This prompted Apple to remove the function on its watches and frustrating customers. Several redditors on the R/AppleWatch -Thread stated that it would buy a new Apple clock as soon as this function was set again.

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In the meantime, other smartwatches and smart rings implement blood oxygen sensors into their wearables, such as the D2 Smartwatch from Huawei. According to Controppoint's report, the Chinese brand recorded an increase in shipping supplies compared to the previous year by 35%.

2. It is a notification machine

A few weeks ago I spoke to a friend at a Tech event who wore an Apple Watch and a whoop on the wrist. Why, I asked, did he wear both? The whoop, he said, was great in pursuing activities, recovering and monitoring his health, while the Apple Watch simply acted as a notification machine.

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Now one of Apple Watch is one of the purposes of pursuing your health. However, the brand has developed several functions that go beyond health tracking that enable the watch to act more as a mini smartphone and less as a health monitor. You can answer calls to the clock, send texts, set the timer and memories and navigate cards. You don't need any of Apple's latest watches to carry out these tasks. In fact, generations of old Apple watches can do such things-and the devices usually have longer life cycles than smartphones. This longevity can delay the purchase of the latest generation by the customer.

3. Brands develop impressive competing products

Sleeping is a big business and the Apple Watch remains behind some industry standards. In contrast to Whoop and Garmin smartwatches or intelligent struggles such as oura, Galaxy Ring or Ultrahuman, the Apple Watch does not offer users any sleep, standby or activity values, even if it collects vitals data around the clock. The sleep features such as sleep apnea recognition are useful for those who want to learn whether they snor, but what about daily use?

Apple comes to the development of a functionality, which promotes constant use through the Vitals app on the Apple Watch. It shows information on how your time, which has fallen asleep, breathing frequency, wrist temperature and blood oxygen, and evaluates it based on high, typical or low areas. Users can see this in a daily, weekly or monthly timeline. However, Apple has to develop more extensive Sleep tracking functions that encourage everyday check-ins to paint an expansive picture and to drive healthy habits. Access to such functions explains why evaluation mechanisms are so useful.

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The tech giant could make notes from Whoop, Oura or Garmin to deliver software that effectively indicates the sleep health of a user, and you can find behavioral knowledge in the independent person who are a morning person or night owl, how to deal with stress or sleep scores for better, consistent calm. These personalized knowledge and summaries that contextualize user data would create a tailor -made experience and increase regular use.