Fitbit tops global wearables market, while Chinese group Xiaomi raced past Apple to second place
Fitbit fitness tracker maker is world’s leading wearable device vendor, while Chinese group Xiaomi raced past Apple to second place, a recent survey showed.
Fitbit, Xiaomi, Apple, Garmin and Samsung make up the top five companies, according to the latest figures from research firm IDC.
Global sales of wearables—a broad category that includes fitness bands, smartwatches and connected clothing, shoes and health gadgets—rose 67.2 percent in the first quarter compared with a year earlier.
Fitbit revealed strong sales figures in its first-quarter earnings call earlier this month announcing that it recorded $505.4 million in revenue during that period. An impressive 4.8 million devices were sold with the Fitbit Blaze and the Fitbit Alta responsible for 47% of the quarter’s revenue.
Xiaomi jumped into second place with an expanded line of inexpensive fitness trackers and a new kids’ watch to help parents track their children, but IDC said most of its sales were in the Chinese market.
Apple was third with estimated sales of its smartwatch of 1.5 million. Although Apple does not release official sales figures, IDC estimated the company sold 4.1 million Apple Watches in the fourth quarter of 2015.
Huawei and Garmin complete the top five, with 0.2 million units and 0.1 million units shipped in Q1 2016. Other players are said to have shipped 0.5 million units combined.
Jitesh Ubrani, senior research analyst for IDC’s Mobile Device Trackers said, ‘There’s a clear bifurcation and growth within the wearables market.’ ‘Right now, we see both as essential to expand the overall market. The unique feature sets combined with substantial differences in price and performance sets each category apart, and leaves plenty of room for both to grow over the next few years,’ he added.
The firm believes that wearable tech is healthy and that the growth is as a result of price reductions over the holiday period and the introduction of new wearable tech, particularly in the smart clothing and shoe departments.