Xiaomi Dominates Global Wearables Industry Which Recorded 65% Growth

• Xiaomi dominates the global wearables industry in Quarter 3 due to its aggressive overseas expansion and strong domestic performance.

The IDC reported earlier this week that Apple dominated last quarter in the wearables market, with the growing popularity of AirPods in particular in the’ wearables’ sub-category. A new report today comes from Canalys which focuses solely on the category of wearable bands which includes sales of smart fitness bands, smartwatches, and fitness trackers.

Globally, this year’s Q3 saw For Q3, Xiaomi saw the world’s largest shipments in the segment, shipping 12.2 million units with 74.4 percent of YoY growth and hitting 27 percent of the quarter market share.

Xiaomi’s growth is attributed to “strong domestic performance and aggressive overseas expansion.” Apple took second place with a market share of 15 percent, where 60 percent of shipments were attributed to the latest Apple Watch Series 5.

With 5.9 million units and 13 percent market share, Huawei ranked third and saw an annual increase of 243 percent thanks to growing sales in China. Fitbit accounted for 8 percent of the market and was the only vendor to see little growth compared to last year. Samsung ranked fifth with a market share of 6 percent, boosting sales in Asia thanks to the Galaxy Fit app at the entrance stage.

Apple’s demand for its much-updated Watch Series 5 was better anticipated in the Americas, moving 3.5 times more units during its launch quarter compared to the Apple Watch Series 4. Series 3 has meanwhile become cheaper, increasing Apple’s mobile quarter band profits.

Fitbit and Samsung joined the low-cost tracker niche in Asia Pacific (not including China) which Xiaomi had dominated with some price-conscious market success for a while. Xiaomi’s aggressive push to Europe with low entry cost fitness bands increased its revenue in the EMEA (Europe and the Middle East) market.

Finally, with Xiaomi in the lea, the market in China grew by 60 percent, though Huawei is trailing close behind thanks to last year’s 290 percent boost. Most of Huawei’s success was helped to improve its smartphone sales by its bundling of low-end bands. “With the Watch GT line-up, Huawei will face growing challenges in sustaining its growth rate, as it will be forced to develop new features and stronger use cases that can truly drive long-term upgrades.” Apple also saw growth in China with sales of the new Series 5 Apple Watch.