MacRumors reports today on new estimated figures from research firm Canalys that show that Apple Watch shipments exceeded a record-breaking figure of 18 million units shipped in 2017, which represents a rise of more than 50% from the 12 million units shipped in 2016.
According to Canalys, 48% of shipments were the Apple Watch Series 3, and 52% were older models. All the Apple Watch shipment figures have to be estimated, because Apple does not release an individual breakdown of Apple Watch figures, preferring instead to group those figures in the “Other Products” category, along with the likes of Apple TV, Apple Watch, AirPods, Beats, and HomePod. With such spectacular unofficial figures, though, maybe it should start publicising them!
These estimates are most likely pretty accurate, with Canalys’ figures not far off from those Ben Bajarin of Creative Strategies and Horace Dediu of Asymco, who estimated total Apple Watch sales of 17.4 million and 17.7 million in 2017.
Underlining the significance of these figures, IDC’s Francisco Jeronimo tweeted that “for the first time, #Apple shipped more Apple Watches in 4Q2017, than the entire Swiss Watch Industry shipped watches! Apple is the biggest watch maker in the world.”
Source: Apple Watch Had Record Year With Estimated 18M Shipments in 2017, Topped Entire Swiss Watch Industry Last Quarter
