The Apple Watch went on sale in April and sold out worldwide within hours. Its launch came after months of waiting from fans and an intense general media interest in the long-rumoured smartwatch.
That attention was enough to propel it to the second biggest wearable device in the world, according to a report this week from mobile analysts IDC. The top five manufacturers are now Fitbit, Apple, Xiaomi, Garmin and Samsung.
The Apple Watch shipped 3.6 million units during the second quarter of the year, representing 19.9% of all smart wearable devices. Fitbit sold only 0.8 million more, at 24.3%. Overall, the entire market grew 223.2% to 18.1 million units, up from 5.6 million in 2014.
The International Business Times reports that Jitesh Ubrani, senior research analyst at IDC, said: “Apple has clearly garnered an impressive lead in this space and its dominance is expected to continue. And, although Fitbit out-shipped Apple, it’s worth noting that Fitbit only sells basic wearables.”
He added that the devices that Fitbit sells are expected to decline in popularity over the next few years, allowing Apple to easily become the market leader. Fitbit concentrates on health and fitness bands while smartwatches like the Apple Watch are a more rounded offering, including health analysis but also allowing users to send messages, get notifications and control apps from their wrist.
When compared only against other smartwatches, the Apple Watch clearly takes the lead over everything else available. Android Wear devices such as the Motorola Moto 360 haven’t found much success with consumers despite also boasting a healthy feature set. Around two out of every three smartwatch devices shipped during the second quarter were Apple Watches.
Samsung, in fifth position on sales, shipped only 600,000 devices during the second quarter of the year, despite being one of the first companies to enter the smartwatch market. Its sales are still up 119% from the same quarter last year but it is now very much in Apple’s shadow.
The numbers suggest that the key players are now really beginning to appear in the smart wearables category. The market as a whole is only headed upwards though, despite persistent consumer reservations on the usefulness of such devices.
