Apple is not number one. That’s right. In the wearables space, the company has not claimed the throne – at least, not yet.
Market research firm IDC has released wearables figures on Q2 of 2015, and surprisingly, it is Fitbit that has held on to the top spot in both shipments and market share.
The San Francisco, Calif-based company specializing in fitness trackers, which it has been shipping since 2008, saw Q2 shipments of 4.4 million, ahead of Apple’s, which debuted at 3.6 million. While impressive, Apple’s marketshare came in at 19.9 per cent, below Fitbit’s 24.3 per cent.
Current rates of adoption of the Apple Watch, released April 24, 2015, puts it closer to the number three contender, Xiaomi, with marketshare of 17.1 per cent rather than the market leader.
However, Apple is way ahead of Samsung, which, despite shipping since September 2013, sit at 3.3 per cent market share. The Worldwide Quarterly Wearable Device Tracker report noted that Samsung’s approach to limiting compatibility of its wearables to Samsung’s top models and nearly exclusive reliance on Tizen also limited its reach.
These figures also hide another trend, which is how quickly Apple has risen from being a non-player in this market.
“About two of every three smart wearables shipped this quarter was an Apple Watch,” Jitesh Ubrani, senior research analyst for IDC Mobile Device Trackers said in a statement. “Apple has clearly garnered an impressive lead in this space and its dominance is expected to continue. And, although Fitbit outshipped Apple, it’s worth noting that Fitbit only sells basic wearables – a category that is expected to lose share over the next few years, leaving Apple poised to become the next market leader for all wearables.”
Overall, the wearables market grew 223.2 per cent in Q2 2015, IDC said.
