Xiaomi Surpasses Apple and Fitbit With 21.5% Market Share in the Global Wearables

The International Data Corporation (IDC) yesterday announced Xiaomi’s top position with 21.5 market share in the global wearable segment in the Q3 ’18 report as Apple came second with 13.1 percent share.

And that has led to an upset in the rankings: in IDC’s Q2 2018 report, Apple held the lead in number of wearables shipped globally, but only just.

In Q3, Xiaomi outsold Apple by over 2 million devices. Whether that trend will hold through the holiday sales season (traditionally a strong time for Apple sales) in Q4 2018 has yet to be seen.

With the great success of the Mi Band 3 in India and other markets beyond China, Xiaomi has gone to grab the top position in the global wearable market as Apple came down to the second spot with 13.1 percent share.

According to IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Wearable Device Tracker, the global shipment of the wearable devices touched 32 million units in the third quarter of 2018, making it 21.7 percent up from the previous year.

New products from the likes of Fitbit, Garmin, and Huawei helped the basic wearables category return to growth during the quarter.

Another driving factor was the growing demand in markets like Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan), which accounted for more than half of all shipments and grew 21.4% over the previous year.

The Xiaomi’s growth in shipment volume to 6.9 million units is attributable to two main factors: the Mi Band 3 and expansion beyond China, where the company has historically done most of its sales.

In the third quarter, only 61 percent of Xiaomi’s shipments were to China, down from over 80 percent in typical quarters, as sales expanded further into Europe, India, and the Middle East/Africa territories ideal areas for affordable wearables.

By contrast, Apple opted to release the Apple Watch Series 4 at a higher price than before and declined to drop an earlier Series 1 or Series 2 model down to the sub-$200 price point that might dramatically expand its market share.

Fitbit stayed at the third spot and still shipped 3.5 million units with its new Charge 3 and Fitbit Ace fitness bands, though its market share dropped from 13.7% to 10.9%. The release of its Fitbit Versa smartwatch allowed the company to keep the No. 2 slot in top smartwatch vendors.

Huawei shipped 1.9 million units for 5.9% share (down from 6.0%) with 1.9 million shipped, but maintained its position with unique offerings like the band-and-Bluetooth-earbud combo, the TalkBand B5.

While Samsung fared rather poorly, on the other hand, experiencing the largest year-over-year decline since Gartner began tracking smartphone sales globally.

Samsung rounded out the top five with 1.8 million devices shipped, managing to grow 91% from the 900,000 devices it shipped in Q3 2017.

It managed to close some of the gaps with Huawei and stretched its lead past other contenders, capturing the fifth position for the quarter.

The company launched its next-generation smartwatch, the Galaxy Watch, marking the first time that a wearable device moved away from its traditional “Gear” moniker to the “Galaxy” sub-brand, said IDC.