Wearable device shipments : Apple and Xiaomi rising at rapid pace
The numbers are out for wearables shipments for 3rd quarter of 2015 and Fitbit has managed to stay at the top but it wouldn’t be for long as Apple and Xiaomi are ready to pounce on to take the lead and our bet is on Xiaomi. But it will be Apple that will have the last laugh, when profits are calculated. While Mi Band costs less than 30$, Apple Watch costs a lot lot more and goes all the way till 10000$. Fitbit, the current leader did double the sales but their growth is no where near to that of Xiaomi. Garmin managed to take fourth spot and BBK rounded off the top 5. On the whole wearable shipments went up by 197.6%.
It is still early stage for wearables tech and consumers prefer Xiaomi for low cost straightforward pedometer and notifier. Those who have more money and prefer application driven wearable, the vast majority went with Apple’s Watch OS driven Watch. With dedicated apps swarming in thanks to WatchOS 2.0, Apple Watch is going to have a massive lead over Android Wear based wearables. The result of this is that Fitbit’s sales may start sliding sooner as Apple and Xiaomi take top spots.
“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,” noted Ramon Llamas , Research Manager for IDC’s Wearables team. “China has quickly emerged as the fastest-growing wearables market, attracting companies eager to compete on price and feature sets. In addition, multiple vendors have experimented with a broad range of products and applications. The challenge, however, is whether these vendors can expand their presence, as few have extended beyond the country’s borders and into other markets.”
“The bifurcation doesn’t just exist in features, but also in price,” said Jitesh Ubrani , Senior Research Analyst for IDC Mobile Device Trackers. “The average smart watch or band came in at just over \$400 and the average basic watch/band at \$94. This leaves a lot of room for new players like Fossil and niche players like Pebble as they have an opportunity to address this space.”
Top Five Wearables Vendors, Worldwide Shipments, Market Share and Year-Over-Year Growth , Q 3 2015 Data (Units in Millions)
| Vendor | 3Q15 Shipment Volumes | 3Q15 Market Share | 3Q14 Shipment Volumes | 3Q14 Market Share | Year-over-Year C hange |
| 1. Fitbit | 4.7 | 22.2% | 2.3 | 32.8% | 101.7% |
| 2. Apple | 3.9 | 18.6% | 0.0 | 0.0% | NA |
| 3. Xiaomi | 3.7 | 17.4% | 0.4 | 5.7% | 815.4% |
| 4. Garmin | 0.9 | 4.1% | 0.5 | 7.0% | 72.5% |
| 5. BBK | 0.7 | 3.1% | 0.0 | 0.0% | NA |
| Others | 7.3 | 34.6% | 3.9 | 54.6% | 88.8% |
| Total | 21.0 | 100.0% | 7.1 | 100.0% | 197.6% |
Source: IDC Worldwide Quarterly Wearable Device Tracker, December 3, 2015
