Wearable Shipments Top 19 Million in Q1 With Plenty of Room To Grow, IDC Says
Total wearables shipments reached 19.7 million units in Q1, up 67 percent over the year-ago quarter, said an IDC report Monday. Driving the increase were multiple fitness tracker and smartphone introductions at major technology shows; post-holiday price cuts on wearables including the sport version of Apple Watch; and category expansion into clothing and footwear.
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On the downside, the market is getting crowded, “and not everyone is guaranteed success,” IDC analyst Ramon Llamas said. "The wearables that we see today are several steps ahead of what we saw when this market began, increasingly taking their cues from form, function, and fashion,” he said.
The wearables market has divided into two subcategories: smartwatches with “holistic” experiences that attempt to be “everything to everyone,” analyst Jitesh Ubrani said, and basic wearables -- fitness bands, connected clothing or hearables -- that have a focused approach and specialized use cases. For now the two categories aren’t in competition because both have room to expand, said Ubrani. Specific feature sets and “substantial differences in price and performance” differentiate the two, leaving “plenty of room for both to grow over the next few years," Ubrani said.
Fitbit continued in Q1 as the “undisputed leader” among wearables makers with 4.8 million units shipped, or 24.5 percent of the market, IDC said. The launch of Fitbit's Alta and Blaze devices -- with “millions” of shipments each -- points to a “new chapter of fashion-oriented fitness trackers,” IDC said. But the surge by Alta and Blaze led to “significant declines” for Fitbit’s previous generation of products: Surge, Charge, Charge HR and Flex, it said. Fitbit’s position is well-established due to a “well-segmented portfolio, pricing strategy, and a strong brand,” IDC said.
Xiaomi overtook Apple in Q1, shipping 3.7 million units, or 19 percent of the market. Xiaomi broadened its line of inexpensive fitness trackers to include heart-rate monitoring and a kids' watch to help parents track their children. Xiaomi’s success came solely from the China market and expanding beyond China will be the company’s biggest hurdle, IDC said.
Apple slipped to third place on Apple Watch sales that have met company expectations, but trailed “far behind” the iPhone, iPad and Mac product lines, IDC said. Apple shipped 1.5 million watches in Q1 for 7.5 percent share of the wearables market. It appears Apple will continuously update watch bands to “keep the product relevant” until the next version of Apple Watch ships, IDC said.
Garmin shipped 900,000 devices, at 4.6 percent of the wearables market, on the strength of its wristbands and watches that appeal to athletes, especially golfers, runners and fitness tracker enthusiasts, IDC said. In the quarter, the company added two fitness trackers -- the vivoactive HR and the vivofit 3, along with its first eye-worn device, the Varia Vision In-sight Display for cyclists.
Samsung landed in a virtual tie for fifth place with BBK among wearables makers, shipping 700,000 units, for 3.6 percent of the market. Samsung’s Gear S2 and Gear S2 Classic smartwatches are among the few smartwatches with a cellular connectivity version that doesn't have to be constantly tethered to a smartphone to function, noted IDC. The Gear smartwatches are compatible with other Android smartphones, broadening their reach, IDC said, but Gear's app portfolio trails what’s available for Android Wear and watchOS.
Within the smartwatch subgroup, Apple led the top five vendors in Q1, shipping 1.5 million units and grabbing 46 percent market share, followed by Samsung (700,000 units, 21 percent), Motorola (400,000, 11 percent), Huawei (200,000, 5 percent) and Garmin (100,000, 3 percent), IDC said.