Global shipments of wearables nearly doubled in the third quarter
The rising popularity of hearables such as earbuds are credited for the surge.
The rising popularity of earbuds such as Apple AirPods helped the wearables market reach a record quarter.
Makers of wearable devices shipped 84.5 million units in the third quarter, an increase of 94.6% and a single-quarter record, IDC reported Monday. Most of that growth was attributed to increased demand for hearables such as earbuds.
"Hearables have become the new go-to product for the wearables market," Ramon T. Llamas, research director for IDC's Wearables Team, said in a statement. "This began with multiple vendors removing the headphone jack from their smartphones , driving the move toward wireless headphones."
The growing popularity of the Apple Watch , AirPods and Beats headphones helped Apple retain the wearables market crown in the third quarter. The company shipped 29.5 million devices in the quarter, an increase of 195% and giving it a 35% market share.
Xiaomi shipped more than 10 million Mi Band devices in the quarter, a 66% increase in shipments that helped it capture a 14.6 market share and the No. 2 spot. Samsung came in third on the success of its new watches and hearables, shipping 8.3 million devices for nearly 10% of the market.
Top 5 Wearables Companies by Shipment Volume, Market Share, and Year-Over-Year Growth, Q3 2019 (shipments in millions) | |||||
Company | 3Q19 Shipments | 3Q19 Market Share | 3Q18 Shipments | 3Q18 Market Share | Year-Over-Year Growth |
1. Apple | 29.5 | 35.0% | 10.0 | 23.0% | 195.5% |
2. Xiaomi | 12.4 | 14.6% | 7.4 | 17.1% | 66.1% |
3. Samsung | 8.3 | 9.8% | 3.2 | 7.4% | 156.4% |
4. Huawei | 7.1 | 8.4% | 2.3 | 5.4% | 202.6% |
5. Fitbit | 3.5 | 4.1% | 3.5 | 8.0% | 0.5% |
Others | 23.8 | 28.1% | 16.9 | 39.0% | 40.4% |
Total | 84.5 | 100.0% | 43.4 | 100.0% | 94.6% |
Source: IDC Worldwide Quarterly Wearables Tracker, December 5, 2019 | |||||
