Apple Watch grabbed an 18.6 percent share of the wearables market during its first full quarter on sale, according to the latest figures, diving straight into second place. This wasn’t quite enough to beat Fitbit to the top spot, but it did kick Samsung out of the top five.
IDC’s latest data suggests a total of 21 million wearables were shipped in Q3 2015, 3.9 million of which were the Apple Watch. Fitbit was the only manufacturer to beat that with 4.7 million shipments, while Xiaomi took the third spot with 3.7 million, and Garmin took fourth with 0.9 million.
Samsung, which was previously in the top five, was edged out by Chinese vendor XTC, a subsidiary of BBK, which shipped 0.7 million units. That’s despite the launch of the Gear S2, which is widely regarded as Samsung’s best smartwatch so far, and its first to support third-party devices.
Only time will tell whether Apple can hold onto that second spot, but it certainly has a tough job on its hands. Despite new competition, Fitbit saw its market share increase 101.7 percent year-over-year, while Xioami’s increased by a staggering 815.4 percent.
What’s more, more than 97 percent of Xiaomi’s shipments went into its home country of China, which suggests the company has plenty of room to grow internationally.
“The early stages of the wearables market have led to tight competition among the leading vendors, and Chinese vendors have seized upon market momentum to grab market share,” said IDC’s Ramon Llamas. “China has quickly emerged as the fastest-growing wearables market, attracting companies eager to compete on price and feature sets.”
Fitbit founder and CEO James Park revealed back in November that Apple Watch had had “no material impact” on its business since making its debut back in April. In its third quarter earnings report, Fitbit announced a 168 percent increase in revenue year-on-year after selling 4.8 million devices.
[via VentureBeat]
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