Health monitoring in pandemic triggers sales of smartwatches in Spain

The rise of smartwatches (smart watches) has become a fact in Spain, where sales grew 18% in 2020 compared to 2019 in a context of pandemic, in which brands have embarked on a race to provide them with greater functionality related to the Health.

In Spain, 1,156,971 smart watches were sold in 2020, a figure that is expected to double in 2021, when it is expected to reach 2,363,956, according to data provided to EFE by the IDC consultancy.

In Europe, the market also grew, in this case by 20.8% in 2020, compared to 2019, with 11.5 million units sold, a figure that is also expected to multiply by two in 2021, when these can reach the 25.6 million units. The world market is in line with the European one.

Context of a pandemic and falling spending on technology

All this occurs in a context of a fall in technology spending in 2020 of more than 4% and maintenance of levels in 2021. In fact, IDC forecasts suggest that in 2021 mobile spending in Spain will fall by 2 , 6% in Spain, compared to 2020; 10.9% for tablets and 7.6% for computers.

Regardless of predictions, what is a fact is that the main brands in the world are putting all their meat on the grill to increase the functionalities of these devices, which make you from an electrocardiogram, to a measurement of tension, of sleep or oxygen; in addition to offering you many of the services of a smart mobile phone.

The pandemic is favoring greater control of health by the population and, in this context, the functionalities included in the smartwatches they are key

The Director of Analysis and Consulting at IDC Research in Spain, José Antonio Cano, explained that the pandemic is favoring greater control of health by the population and, in this context, the functionalities included in the smartwatches they are key. According to data from the third quarter of 2020 in Spain, in terms of wrist devices in general, which also include basic watches and bracelets, Xiaomi is the company that has sold the most units (441,192 units), followed by Apple (344,803), Huawei (214,358) and Samsung (161,113), according to IDC.

All this in a global context of growth in the sales of these wrist devices, in which sales rose 24%, compared to 2019. In total, 54.8 million wrist devices were sold in the world in the third quarter of the year, being Xiaomi the best seller, followed by Apple and, thirdly, by Huawei, always according to IDC data.

Apple bills half of global revenue

The fact of selling more units does not mean that the market is leading in terms of turnover, since if we stick to this parameter, Apple would be the king, according to data from Counterpoint for the third quarter of the year.

According to this consultancy, Apple billed in the third quarter of 2020 for smart watches 2.3 billion dollars (1.896 million euros), almost half of the global revenue of these wrist devices. These revenues represented an 18% increase over the same period last year. After seven consecutive quarters of not doing so, China managed to surpass North America in shipments of these devices and has become a market leader, according to Counterpoint.

The health race

The race is unstoppable and while Xiaomi offers watches that allow monitoring up to 11 sports modalities, sleep, heart and even measure blood oxygen; Apple Whatch also offers functionalities of this type, complemented by new ones. A fall detector, or an alert emitter in case you perceive an unusual heart rate are other of Apple’s attributions in its watches.

Huawei is not far behind and has also included a free trainer service in its watches, which offers free courses, as well as different training modes. The latest brand to launch an ad has been Samsung, a company that is not at the top in sales, but has also launched news in this regard: this week it has advanced that it incorporates blood pressure monitoring and electrocardiogram functions in its watches.

The race is unstoppable and, for this, artificial intelligence is “a key weapon”, according to Cano. In fact, one of IDC’s predictions for the end of 2021 is that 7 of the top 10 wristwear companies will launch algorithms capable of early detection of potential signs of infections, such as COVID-19 and the flu.