Apple leads the global wearables market, Xiaomi 2nd

NEW DELHI: Apple has once again emerged as the leader in the global wearables market with four million shipments in the first quarter of the year 2018, according to latest report by IDC. The research firm reveals that the worldwide shipments of wearable devices grew 1.2% during the first quarter of the year 2018 (Q1-2018) as total shipments reached 25.1 million units.
The Apple Watch shipments grew by 13.5% over the previous year as the launch of a cellular connected Watch launched in additional markets. The report adds that Apple's growth has also outpaced the entire market allowing the watchmaker to increase its share from 14.3% in 1Q17 to 16.1% in 1Q18.

The second spot in the list is held by the Chinese smartphone major Xiaomi. The company contributed 14.8% share of the total shipments. "However, with the lowest average selling price (ASP) among the top 5 companies, Xiaomi was only able to capture a paltry 1.8% of the dollar value of the market during the quarter," the report added.

Fitbit ranked third during the quarter despite a decline of 28.1%. The launch of the company's recent smartwatch Versa proved to be fruitful for the company. Along with this, the company also introduced new features on its platform, such as female health tracking, which appears to have been well received with over 2 million users already using the feature.

The fourth position in the list is held by another Chinese company Huawei. The company's sub-brand Honor has a wide product portfolio of smartwatches, kids' watches, fitness trackers, and even ear-worn devices which helped it to more than double its share from the previous year.

The last in the list of top five wearable manufacturers is Garmin with 5% share. Garmin has been relatively slow to adopt certain new features though the recent roll out of music playback and further expansion of Garmin Pay and the Connect IQ platform paid for the company during the quarter.