During Apple's Financial Conference Call in January, CFO Luca Maestri stated: "In addition to an outstanding level of sales performance globally Apple Watch continues to extend its reach with over two thirds of customers purchasing an Apple watch during the quarter, being new to the product." However, globally didn't include India where Apple got knocked out of the top 5 Smartwatch brands in Q4 2021 by Indian brands that captured 75% market share collectively. The strength of Q4-21 by Indian brands also knocked Apple out of the top 5 brands for the all or 2021. Though to be fair, statistics don't always reflect a textured reality.

India’s smartwatch market saw record growth of over 274% YoY in 2021 shipments, according to the latest research from Counterpoint’s IoT Service. Further, with QoQ growth of over 8%, Q4 2021 became the market’s biggest ever quarter.

Commenting on the market trends, Senior Research Analyst Anshika Jain: "The smartwatch market is showing tremendous growth, which is attributed to increased health awareness, affordable prices, growth of new entrants, discount schemes and numerous launches of feature-packed products throughout the year."

(Click on image to Enlarge)

(Click on image to Enlarge)

The Counterpoint report pointed out that "Apple remained flat in 2021 with the Watch SE contributing around 44% of its total volume. The refreshed line-up of Series 7 saw a great start with shipments crossing 100,000 units in Q4 2021."

While it may sound alarming that Apple was knocked out of the top 5 brand list in India, context is required. In Anshika Jain's analysis he states that more than 86% of the total shipments were driven by the under-INR 5,000 price band, compared to 59% in the previous year."

Under-INR 5,000 translates to under-US$67, a price category that Apple Watch will never compete in. Adding such a ridiculous price range into the smartwatch category skews the top 5 smartphone brand standings as being a joke on the part of Counterpoint.

Clearly Counterpoint should redesign their smartwatch charts to reflect the smartwatch categories more accurately into "entry smartwatches" or "bargain brands" and "Pro" smartwatches.

In this case, the ridiculous statistical set-up for smartwatches doesn't provide an accurate reading of India's smartwatch market overall in my view.  Then again, perhaps you see it differently. For more on India's smartwatch market, read the full Counterpoint report.