Apple Watch Series 3 Now Tracks Skiing and Snowboarding Activity

The Apple Watch Activity app has been updated to add tracking for skiing and snowboarding.

"Starting today, skiers and snowboarders can use Apple Watch Series 3 to track their activities via new updates to apps available in the App Store. Watch users can now record runs, see vertical descent and other stats and contribute active calorie measurements directly to the Apple Watch Activity app," the company wrote in a blog post late on Wednesday.

Users can now gather more data from the Apple Watch Series 3, including the number of runs, average and maximum speeds, total time, calories burned and the vertical descent and horizontal distance.

In addition to updates in Apple's Activity app, users will find similar changes to related apps such as Slopes, Squaw Alpine, Snocru, Ski Tracks and snoww.

Apps such as Slopes and snoww also offer Siri integration, thus, allowing users to start tracking with voice controls.

The latest report by Canalys claims Apple Watch shipments in Q4 2017 grew over 32 percent from the same quarter the previous year, up to 8 million units. Canalys said this was the highest ever number of shipments in a single quarter, not just for Apple, but for any wearable vendor.

Annual shipments reached the 18 million mark in overall 2017, an increase of 54 percent compared to the previous year. "Watch Series 3 is the fastest-selling LTE wearable on the market, with shipments doubling quarter on quarter to reach 1.6 million," Vincent Thielke, Research Analyst at Canalys, said in a statement.

As for the claim of Apple Watch shipments exceeding total Swiss watch industry sales in Q4 2017, IDC Research Director and Industry Analyst and Speaker Francisco Jeronimo in a recent tweet stated, "For the first time, Apple shipped more Apple Watches in 4Q2017, than the entire Swiss Watch Industry shipped watches! Apple is the biggest watch maker in the world."

Written with inputs from IANS