Apple has dominated the global wearables market, selling 10.4 million Apple Watches out of a total of 16.2 million devices sold in the fourth quarter of 2018, International Data Corporation (IDC) said Wednesday. The California-based company is now releasing the Apple Watch Series 3, Apple Watch Series 4, Apple Watch Nike+, and Apple Watch Hermès.
The global wearables market grew by 31.4% during the fourth quarter, according to IDC data released in its “Worldwide Quarterly Wearable Device Tracker.”.
Apple won 27.4% of the market, while Xiaomi took second place with 12.6%.
Xiaomi's Mi Band 3 alone accounted for over 30% of all wrist bands sold in the fourth quarter.
Apple managed to hold onto the lead throughout the year, capturing 26.8% of the market. Xiaomi followed with a 13.5% share.
“Smartwatches, meanwhile, grew by 54.3% and accounted for 29.8% of all wearable devices in 2018,” said Ramon T. Llamas, IDC’s Wearables Research Director.
In third place was Huawei, which also saw a 43% increase during the quarter.
Fitbit was in fourth place and Samsung in fifth.
Wrist bands accounted for 30% of the market as recent releases from Xiaomi, Huawei and Fitbit continued to grow this wearable category. Ear-worn devices also grew by 66.4% to capture 21.9% of the market.
“The ear wearables market has grown significantly over the past year and we expect this to continue in the coming years,” said Jitesh Ubrani, Senior Research Analyst at IDC.
