When Apple chose not to reveal sales numbers for the Apple Watch in its last earnings report, Wall Street began to speculate that sales aren’t going so well, although management denies those speculations. So just how popular is the device?
Apple Watch growth in China tapering off
The only data we’ve had indicated that sales of the Apple Watch dropped off quickly after launch, but the device may be doing well in China, according to another set of data points. If true, this would be good for the company because management has made it clear that China is one of its most important markets because of its sheer size.
TalkingData, China’s largest third-party Big Data service provider, shared its data on Apple Watch sales in China since the April launch. The firm reports that while ownership of the device continues to grow steadily, percentagewise, that growth is seeing a bumpy ride.
Apple Watch is popular in China
As you can see from the graph, ownership of the Apple Watch grew 8.9% the week of July 19. That’s actually an acceleration from the previous week when ownership grew just 4.5%. The previous week, ownership grew 13.4% following a 7.5% growth rate the week before that (All graphs in this article are courtesy Talking Data.).
But those growth percentages remain a far cry from the growth numbers Apple saw immediately after the smartwatch’s launch.
Where are all the Apple Watch users
TalkingData also examined the location of Apple Watch users in China. Unsurprisingly, most users are in first-tier cities, although ownership in second-tier cities is running close behind. The firm also reports that growth of the Apple Watch in second- and third-tier cities is coming faster than growth in first-tier cities.
It seems that this would be expected as the Apple Watch starts to trickle out from China’s biggest cities into the smaller ones. Nonetheless, Beijing remains the leader with the highest ratio of Apple Watch users. In second place is Shanghai, lagging quite a bit behind Beijing.
What Apple Watch apps are Chinese users downloading
TalkingData also looked at the types of apps that are being used on the Apple Watch in China. Social networking is clearly the leader in this area, which shouldn’t be much of a surprise. The smartwatch makes it easier for users to quickly interact with messaging services on their iPhone without having to take the phone out of their pockets.
Here’s a look at the top 20 Apple Watch apps in China:
Apple Watch usage on the rise
Zeroing in on the top five Apple Watch apps, the firm noted that there was a sudden surge in growth in May and June which then began to flatten out during July.
It was a similar story with other Apple Watch apps:
Shares of Apple closed down by 2.6% at $118.14 per share on Monday and declined another 0.63% to $117.69 per share in premarket trading this morning.
