Picture: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac
Apple Watch shipments dropped nearly 20% 12 months over 12 months within the first quarter of 2024. Market analysts blame a number of the decline on Apple being briefly pressured to halt gross sales of its most up-to-date wearables in a patent dispute over blood oxygen monitoring in items offered in the US.
AirPods gross sales additionally declined in Q1 2024 however for a distinct motive.
Blame a patent lawsuit for Apple Watch shipments decline
Apple is concerned in a long-running patent dispute with Masimo Corp. and its sibling firm, Cercacor Laboratories. The 2 medical-device makers have satisfied court docket after court docket that the best way the heart beat oximeter contained in the Apple Watch works infringes on their tech.
Apple needed to cease promoting Apple Watch Collection 9 and Extremely 2 in the US late final 12 months. There have been a number of subsequent begins and stops, however when gross sales resumed for good on January 18, Apple had been pressured to disable blood oxygen monitoring software program within the these items.
And within the first quarter of this 12 months, Apple Watch shipments declined 19.1% when in comparison with the identical interval of 2023, in response to analysts at IDC. They credited a number of the drop to “a temporary ban on certain watch models.”
The truth that the wearables proceed to be offered within the U.S. with out oxygen monitoring is probably going affecting gross sales, too. The issue will grow to be important this autumn when Apple Watch Collection X will get able to launch.
AirPods and Beats shipments additionally drop
IDC additionally reported on Tuesday that shipments of AirPods and Beats declined 18.8% in the course of the quarter. The analysts collectors the decline in these hearables in “the lack of newer AirPods.”
The final new mannequin on this widespread product line was AirPods Professional 2 in late 2022. The third-generation customary AirPods launched in late 2021.
A change is coming, although: a fourth-generation of those actually wi-fi earbuds is allegedly on Apple’s 2024 agenda. AirPods Professional 3 aren’t anticipated till subsequent 12 months, nonetheless.
Apple Watch and AirPods Q1 2024 shipments collectively
Altogether, shipments of Apple Watch and AirPods totaled 20.6 million items within the first three months of the 12 months, in response to IDC. That’s an 18.9% year-over-year decline.
Nonetheless, it was sufficient to maintain Apple on the prime of the heap out there for every type of wearables. It has 18.2% of the worldwide market, near double its subsequent nearest competitor.