Seoul, May 10 (IANS): Samsung Electronics became the second-largest vendor of smartwatches in the first quarter of the year, amid rising popularity of the wearable device.

Samsung, which makes the Galaxy Watch, shipped 1.9 million smartwatches in the January-March period, up from 1.7 million a year earlier, according to data from market research firm Strategy Analytics.

However, its market share declined slightly from 14.9 per cent to 13.9 per cent over the cited period.

"Samsung remains the world's number two smartwatch vendor, but its growth was slowed by the coronavirus lockdown at home in South Korea and renewed competition from hungry competitors like Garmin," said Steven Waltzer, senior analyst at Strategy Analytics.

Apple continued to expand its dominant presence in the smartwatch market.

The tech giant shipped 7.6 million units of the Apple Watch in the first three months of the year, up from 6.2 million units a year earlier.

Its market share also increased from 54.4 per cent to 55.5 per cent.

Garmin was third with an 8 per cent market share after shipping 1.1 million smartwatches.

Despite the novel coronavirus pandemic, global smartwatch shipments grew 20 per cent on-year to 14 million units in the first quarter.

However, it is predicted that the shipments would decline in the second quarter.

"Sales in Europe and the US have inevitably been hit by the virus lockdown in recent months," said Woody Oh, director at Strategy Analytics.