Apple Watch dominates the Edge AI market

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Around nine out of ten smartwatches that process AI directly on the wrist feature an apple logo – according to a recent market report. The gap to the competition is so large that it says less about a single function than about a strategic direction. For users in Germany, however, these figures carry a double message.

Edge AI describes AI calculations that run directly on the device, instead of sending data to the cloud for analysis. In the Apple Watch, the integrated Neural Engine handles precisely these kinds of tasks – from gesture recognition and voice commands to individual health and safety signals. The fact that this area is becoming a growth driver is fitting for a watch whose latest generations derive their most significant innovations almost exclusively from software – a pattern that continues in the expectations surrounding the Apple Watch Series 12.

Nine out of ten Edge AI watches come from Apple

Market researchers at Counterpoint Research analyzed shipments of smartwatches that perform AI tasks locally on the device for the first quarter of 2026. The result is clear: around 90 percent of these Edge AI watches are from Apple. The overall market for such devices grew by 70 percent year-over-year, and now one in four smartwatches shipped belongs to this category – a market share of 25 percent.

Only devices with a dedicated Neural Engine (NPU) that primarily perform at least one health, safety, or interaction function locally on this accelerator are considered Edge AI smartwatches. Analysts predict that the market share of such watches will rise to approximately 32 percent by 2026. This lead is therefore not only significant but is also emerging in a segment that is only just beginning to gain momentum.

Health functions as the actual driver

Two functional groups are primarily behind this growth. According to the report, shipments of smartwatches with blood pressure monitoring doubled, while those with sleep apnea detection tripled. Across the entire market, the adoption of these health features increased significantly.

Health function	Q1 2025	Q1 2026
Blood pressure monitoring	11 %	23 %
Sleep apnea detection	5 %	18 %
ECG	31 %	34 %

While ECG coverage is only growing slightly – the function is already well-established on many models – blood pressure and sleep apnea detection are rapidly catching up. With Apple, it's important to clarify: The Apple Watch doesn't measure blood pressure directly, but rather uses its optical heart sensor to analyze patterns and alerts users to potential signs of chronic hypertension via a hypertension notification. This is therefore a screening signal, not a measurement with specific values.

Why the iPhone does the computing

The definition of Edge AI also includes voice commands among the locally processed interaction functions – and this is where a closer look is warranted. The classic, on-device speech recognition is part of what makes the Apple Watch an Edge AI watch. The new, significantly more powerful Siri generation, however, does not run on the watch itself.

The reason is purely technical: The Apple Watch currently has about one to one and a half gigabytes of RAM. Apple currently requires at least eight gigabytes for devices that run Apple Intelligence directly. Therefore, the complex AI calculations are handled by a paired iPhone, while the watch only hosts the user interface. The local Edge AI component of the Watch is thus limited to those tasks that the energy-efficient Neural Engine in the case can actually handle.

What works in Germany – and what's holding the DMA back

For the German-speaking market, this presents a mixed picture. The good news first: the very health features that drive the Edge AI metrics are available here. Sleep apnea detection arrived in Germany with watchOS 11 in fall 2024, and hypertension notifications followed with watchOS 26 in September 2025 – each after approval by the relevant authorities. Anyone wearing a compatible Apple Watch therefore benefits from the core technology that puts Apple at the forefront of the segment.

Furthermore, there's a point that carries more weight in the data privacy-sensitive European environment than elsewhere: Because Edge AI keeps the analysis on the device, the underlying health data never leaves the wrist or the iPhone. What Cupertino sells as an efficiency advantage is, in the EU, primarily a matter of trust.

The downside concerns the interaction aspect. Due to the Digital Markets Act, Apple is not yet making the new Siri generation available on iPhones and iPads in the EU – and because the assistant on the watch runs via the paired iPhone, the Apple Watch automatically inherits this restriction. Users in Germany thus gain the health-related Edge AI advantage, while the most advanced AI assistance feature is missing precisely where it would most significantly change everyday use.

Apple's lead lies in its software

The dominant market share is not a snapshot in time, but the result of years of work on sensor technology and local data processing. As long as competitors fail to integrate the hardware base and the ecosystem of watchOS, Health app, and iPhone to this extent, the gap is likely to persist. It is telling that the next boost is expected to come from software – new sensors play a less significant role in expectations for the next generation than smarter algorithms on existing hardware. (Image: Shutterstock / charnsitr)