Is The Apple (AAPL) Watch Losing Its Charm?

Apple Watch sales took a big fall in the second quarter. Sales fell 55% in Q2 2016 and took the overall global market for such devices down with it.

Apple Watch is Apple’s first new hardware product since the iPad’s 2010 debut.

According to a report from market intelligence firm IDC, Apple Inc. sold 1.6 million watches in the second quarter of this year. This is down from 3.6 million units a year earlier. Global smartwatch sales fell 32 percent to 3.5 million units.

Despite the drop in sales, Apple is still the leader in the industry with 47% of the market but Samsung Electronics Co. saw its market share more than double to 16%.

IDC analyst Jitesh Ubrani wrote in his report, “Consumers have held off on smartwatch purchases since early 2016 in anticipation of a hardware refresh, and improvements in WatchOS are not expected until later this year, effectively stalling existing Apple Watch sales.”

“Apple still maintains a significant lead in the market and unfortunately a decline for Apple leads to a decline in the entire market.”

“Every vendor faces similar challenges related to fashion and functionality, and though we expect improvements next year, growth in the remainder of 2016 will likely be muted,” said Ubrani.

Disclaimer: We have no position in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) and have not been compensated for this article.