Wearables Market Up 35% in Q1 2018 as Apple and Xiaomi Maintain Lead
May 23, 2018 | CanalysEstimated reading time: 2 minutes
Wearable band shipments grew 35% year on year to 20.5 million units in Q1 2018, Wearables market up 35% in Q1 2018 as Apple and Xiaomi maintain lead driven by strong demand for health-centric devices. Smartwatches accounted for 80% of wearable band revenue, up from 74% in Q1 2017. In terms of shipped units, smartwatches accounted for 43% in Q1 2018. Apple emerged as the top vendor, shipping 3.8 million Apple Watches; Xiaomi, whose Mi Bands account for more than 90% of its shipments, was close behind, shipping 3.7 million units. Fitbit, Garmin and Huawei, vendors selling a mixed portfolio of fitness wearables, rounded out the top five.
Apple Watch shipments stabilized after a record quarter for the company and it matched its Q1 2017 number. “Key to Apple’s success with its latest Apple Watch Series 3 is the number of LTE-enabled watches it has been able to push into the hands of consumers,” said Canalys Senior Analyst Jason Low. “Operators welcome the additional revenue from device sales and the added subscription revenue for data on the Apple Watch, and the list of operators that sell the LTE Apple Watch worldwide is increasing each month.” Apple represents 59% of the total cellular-enabled smartwatch market. “While the Apple ecosystem has a strong LTE watch offering, the lack of a similar product in the Android ecosystem is glaring. If Google decides to pursue the opportunity with a rumored Pixel Watch, it would jump-start much needed competition in this space.”
Garmin is now the second largest smartwatch vendor after Apple, with 1 million smartwatches shipped in the last quarter. “Garmin’s transition to smartwatches has been swift as it focuses its GPS expertise on catering to endurance athletes and outdoor enthusiasts,” said Vincent Thielke, Research Analyst at Canalys. “It brought much needed improvements by adding features such as Garmin Pay to the Forerunner and vívoactive series, and now offers onboard music storage on the latest Forerunner 645. While launching services is a great way to build stickiness, Garmin must ensure it continues to enhance them based on real use-cases. The exercise could prove costly should Garmin be the sole driver of such an ecosystem.”
With global smartwatch replacement rates increasing, Fitbit is racing to get its users to upgrade to smartwatches and to attract new users amid fierce competition. “Fitbit is betting on its newly launched Versa smartwatch, while introducing female health tracking to expand its addressable market,” said Thielke. According to the latest Canalys estimates, smartwatches (including the Blaze) made up 24% of Fitbit’s wearable band shipments. “Collaboration between Fitbit and Google on the Cloud Healthcare API will help Fitbit get into healthcare systems, and that is a positive move. But Fitbit’s immediate cause for concern will be satisfying investors that it is selling more wearables, something it may not be able to do.”
About Canalys
Canalys is an independent analyst company that strives to guide clients on the future of the technology industry and to think beyond the business models of the past. We deliver smart market insights to IT, channel and service provider professionals around the world. We stake our reputation on the quality of our data, our innovative use of technology and our high level of customer service.
Suggested Items
Commercial Demand Continues to Be the Main Driver of Personal Computing Device Shipments into the GCC Region
03/26/2024 | IDCThe Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) personal computing device (PCD) market, which is made up of desktops, notebooks, and workstations, declined 4.0% year on year in 2023, with high inventory levels and reduced consumer spending the primary causes.
Suppliers Aim to Raise Contract Prices, But With Uncertain Demand, 2Q24 DRAM Price Increase Expected to Narrow to 3–8%
03/26/2024 | TrendForceTrendForce’s latest report reveals that despite DRAM suppliers’ efforts to trim inventories, they have yet to reach healthy ranges. As they continue to improve their lose situations by boosting capacity utilization rates, the overall demand outlook for this year remains tepid.
LPKF Reports Strategic Successes and Narrowly Achieves Forecast for 2023 Financial Year
03/26/2024 | LPKFLPKF Laser & Electronics SE generated revenue of EUR 124.3 million in the financial year (previous year: EUR 123.7 million) and earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) of EUR 3.7 million (previous year: EUR 6.8 million), putting the EBIT margin at 3.0% (previous year: 5.5%).
Arlon EMD and EMC Announce Expansion in California
03/25/2024 | Arlon EMDArlon EMD, a division of Elite Materials Company (EMC), announces a factory expansion at the Rancho Cucamonga, CA location. Arlon is a global leader in high performance thermoset substrates for mission critical printed circuit boards manufactured for high endurance and long-life programs. Arlon has a 45-year history of manufacturing specialty materials for the Aerospace, Industrial and Military (AIM) markets.
Intraratio Enhances MES + Yield / IoT Management with New Advanced Manufacturing Analytics
03/22/2024 | IntraratioIntraratio announced AICard, which harnesses the power of artificial intelligence and machine learning to empower manufacturers to make informed decisions quickly and accurately regarding product quality and manufacturing line performance and optimization.