Apple watch market share shrunk in Q1

Apple's share of the smartwatch market declined in the first three months of the year, according to a new report.

The Apple Watch finished Q1 with a 52.4% share of the global smartwatch market, down from 63% in Q4, according to research firm Strategy Analytics.

Apple shipped 2.2 million units of the Watch in Q1, and Apple is by far the dominant player in the nascent market. But a growing field of rivals, building watches based on Google's Android Wear software and on the open-source Tizen system, is catching up.

Samsung is the number 2 player in the market, with 14.3% market share. A catch-all group of others have a combined market share of 33.3%, according to the report.

Apple released its smartwatch in April 2015. While some analysts and investors hoped the Watch would ignite a new consumer craze for wearable gadgets, the mainstream appeal of smartwatches and other wearables remains unclear. The Apple Watch has faced criticism of being slow and of having limited usefulness.

Apple, which does not disclose sales figures of the Watch, is expected to release a new version later this year that will include new features to address some of the perceived shortcomings.