The top 5 wearables companies in Q2 2018
The global wearables market shipped 27.9 million units during the second quarter of 2018, up 5.5% from the previous year, according to data from the International Data Corporation (IDC).
The world’s most valuable company, Apple maintained its number one position at 17% market share in the wearables market, with market-beating growth and continued demand for its LTE-enabled Watch, shipping 4.7 million units, up from 3.4 million in 2017.
Now that the company has unveiled watchOS 5, it has also begun to chart out potential replacement cycles as the latest version of Apple’s smartwatch platform will be compatible only with Series 1 and later.
Chinese-based, Xiaomi held the second position at 15.1% market share, with multiple variants of the Mi Band wearable, priced at the low end of the market. The company which grew its brand awareness across Europe and the Middle East with its smartphone lineup shipped 4.2 million units of wearables during Q2 of 2018, up from 3.5 million in 2017.
Fitness giant, Fitbit’s launch of the Versa successfully expanded its user base beyond the basic wristband, making it the second-largest smartwatch brand during the quarter with 1.1 million smartwatches shipped. At 9.5% market share, the company shipped a total of 2.7 million units of wearables, down from 3.4 million in 2017.
Huawei, like Xiaomi, has been heavily focused on the Chinese market though this is slowly changing as the company starts to experience growth outside its home turf. As a result, 1.8 million units of wearables were shipped in Q2 2018, up from 800,000 in 2017, at a 6.5% market share.
Garmin extended its lead over Samsung to maintain its position as the number five vendor worldwide with the success of its fitness-oriented Vivo line and the launch of its new golf-centered Approach S10. The company recorded 1.5 million shipments, up from 1.4 million units shipped in 2017, at a 5.3% market share.
The report further finds that emerging markets, including Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan), Central & Eastern Europe, Middle East & Africa, and Latin America, grew 14% year over year as basic wristbands are still in high demand (due to the low price) and smartwatches also gained traction.
