The market for wearables is continuing to expand with 19.7 million devices shipped in the first quarter of 2016. Fitbit takes the first place, while Apple Watch sneaks into the third.
The first quarter of 2016 experienced explosive growth with a 67 percent increase year-over-year. This information comes from the IDC Worldwide Quarterly Wearable Device Tracker, which is considered to be highly accurate.
The report claims that the rift between basic single-use devices like Fitbit’s products and complex all-in-one devices (Apple Watch) is widening.
[quote]”Smart watches attempt to offer holistic experiences by being everything to everyone, while basic wearables like fitness bands, connected clothing, or wearables have a focused approach and often offer specialized use cases.” – Jitesh Ubrani, IDC research analyst.[/quote]
Fitbit continues to dominate the wearables market and takes 24.5 percent market share in Q1 of 2016, with 4.8 million shipments. This is up from one million units one year ago.
Chinese Xiaomi comes in second with 3.7 million units shipped, which means that it takes a 19 percent market share.
Even though Apple takes the third place in the overall wearables market share, it takes the first place if we only look at smartwatches.
It is also interesting to note that Apple has much higher revenue from its Apple Watch than Fitbit, despite selling a lower number of devices. The reason for this is the price of $299 for the base model, while Fitbit’s price point averaged $100 per device. This has led to lower stock gains and a weaker performance on Wall Street.
