Xiaomi overtakes Apple and Fitbit to lead wearables market

Global Wearables Vendor Shipments Q2 2017
Xiaomi has overtaken Apple and Fitbit to lead the global wearables market in terms of shipments in Q2 2017 due to its low-cost products, according to a report from Strategy Analytic.

Xiaomi, a China based technology company with 17 percent market share, became the world’s largest wearables vendor for the first time ever. Xiaomi is also one of the leading smartphone vendors in the world.

Wearables shipments reached 21.6 million units (+8 percent) in the second quarter of 2017 from 20 million in Q2 2016.

“Strong demand for low-cost fitness bands in China and premium smartwatches across the United States drove the uptick,” said Steven Waltzer, industry analyst at Strategy Analytics.

Xiaomi shipped 3.7 million wearables in Q2 2017, rising 23 percent from 3 million units in Q2 2016. Xiaomi’s Mi Band fitness trackers are wildly popular in China, due to their highly competitive pricing and rich features such as heart-rate monitors, step-counters and calendar alerts.

Fitbit shipped 3.4 million wearables for 16 percent marketshare in Q2 2017, almost halving from 29 percent a year ago. Fitbit is facing competition from low-end fitness bands sold by Xiaomi and the fitness-led, high-end smartwatches sold by Apple.

Apple has shipped 2.8 million wearables in Q2 2017, growing 56 percent from 1.8 million in Q2 2016.

“Apple has for now lost its wearables leadership to Xiaomi, due to a lack of presence in the sizeable fitness band subcategory. Watch Series 3 launch with enhanced health tracking could prove to be a popular smartwatch model and enable Apple to reclaim the top wearables spot later this year,” said Cliff Raskind, director at Strategy Analytics.

The report did not mention about the market share of Samsung.