Remember a few weeks back when I expressed my concerns with Apple Watch sales? Well there are new numbers out from Canalys that suggest the smart watch industry is actually doing much better. So while IDC reported a 51% decrease in smart watch sales in Q3 2016 and a 71% decrease in Apple Watch sales, Canalys has a much rosier picture.

Canalys is saying not only that the smart watch market did not drop in half over last year, but that it grew a whole 60% over the same quarter last year. That's not just a rounding error or a minor disagreement in the numbers, it's huge! To put that in perspective, if 100 smart watches were sold in Q3 2015, IDC says there were 49 sold this quarter, Canalys thinks there were 160 sold. Yup, if we agree on how many were sold last year, then Canalys thinks over 3x as many were sold this quarter than IDC.

What?!

These numbers being so far off really speaks to how iffy these third party sales numbers can be. Either IDC is right and Canalys is wrong, IDC is wrong and Canalys is right, or they're both wrong. There's simply no reality where they are both on point. We really just need Apple to come out and say how the Watch sales are doing if we're ever going to have a reliable number to work off of.

I hope very strongly that these numbers from Canalys are more on point than IDC's because that makes me happier as a smart watch fan. It also does line up with what I see in the world a little better too. I see so many more Apple Watches in the wild than I did last year that I don't even get that excited about it anymore.

Okay you got me, I still get really excited about them :)