Apple’s dominance in the smartwatch market is continuing to decline, despite the overall market seeing steady growth, according to a report from market research firm ABI Research.

The iPhone maker’s smartwatch market share fell to 43.35 per cent in second and third quarter of last year – it’s lowest point since the same time in 2017. However, Apple is still way out in front of its competitors with Fitbit, Huawei, and Samsung all sitting at around eight per cent each.

“The smartwatch market is a major part of the overall wearables market, offering consumers access to a large number of wearable features, such as fitness tracking, notifications, and heart rate monitoring, from the wrist,” said Stephanie Tomsett, research analyst at ABI Research. “As the number of flagship and budget smartwatches continues to grow, consumers are increasingly opting for devices from companies other than Apple, such as Fitbit, Huawei, and Samsung. Hence, Apple has seen its market share drop over the past couple of quarters.

“Apple will continue to ship a large number of smartwatches to both loyal and new customers,” continued Tomsett. “However, with so many other smartwatches available with most of the major features of the Apple Watch, at a reduced price, increased battery life, or with greater compatibility with a larger number of smartphone OSs, more consumers are likely to move away from Apple in favor of these other devices.”