Apple watch breaks all records shipping 7 mn units

Apple continues to dominate the smartwatch market and is increasing its already sizeable lead over the other contending brands.

According to a report by Canalys, a research firm dedicated to technology, Apple had shipped almost 7 million units of its smartwatches from the first time it started offering the wearables.

Canalys pointed out that this figure exceeded the aggregated shipment figures of rival players within the past five quarters. Furthermore, in the third quarter of this year, Apple was the brand to have shipped over 300,000 smartwatches.

With Apple's smartwatch topping the chart, the other competing brands, which are mostly Android Wear, are competing for slots below it.

Pebble, with its release of the Time Steel series, sold over 200,000 smartwatch units, while on the other hand, Samsung's release of the Gear S2 has not helped its smartwatch sales, which were down before hitting the fourth quarter.

"Vendors will continue to battle for position behind Apple in Q4 as a raft of new devices from a diverse set of companies hits the market," Canalys reports.

Meanwhile, though there had been no official communication on the number of the devices it had sold, according to credible data Apple might have sold over 7 million of its smartwatches since its launch.

Analysts say these sales figures beat all other vendors' combined shipments in the past five quarters. Apple had earlier experienced severe supply chain constraints but with this out of the way, Apple Watch sales surged and are expected to only gain momentum in Q4 (the Christmas season), as reported by The Register.

Fossil and Tag Heuer also plan to enter the fray with the launch their first smartwatches before the end of the year, which is expected to further heighten competition among smartwatch makers, CNet (See: Swiss watchmakers take their time, but get smart).

The Apple Watch derives much of its appeal from the vast range of colours and styles with boosted capabilities enhanced by the Watch OS2 upgrades to Apple Watch stay ahead of its rivals.