AppleInsider Staff
According to the latest estimates from research firm IDC, Apple Watch shipments are plummeting as sales of "basic" smart wearables that do little more than track fitness metrics continue to grow.
For the second quarter of 2016, Apple Watch saw shipments shrink to an estimated 1.6 million units, down 56.7 percent year over year. By contrast, wearables market leader Fitbit shipped 5.7 million units over the same period, up 28.7 percent.
As a result of the dip in shipments, Apple saw its position among top-five wearable device vendors slip from second to third, with its share of the market dropped precipitously from 20.3 percent in 2015 to only 7 percent in 2016. The dip allowed last year's third-place vendor Xiaomi to usurp Apple with a 14 percent share of the market.
Garmin exhibited the highest growth rate and matched Apple's 1.6 million shipments for the second quarter, up 106.7 percent from the same time last year. Newcomer Lifesense placed fifth on one million units shipped.
The overall wearables market grew 26.1 percent during quarter two.
While IDC's figures tell a tale of doom and gloom for Apple, it should be noted that Apple Watch is a smartwatch, while products marketed by producers like Xiaomi are fitness trackers. IDC acknowledges draws the incongruous comparison, noting basic wearables, or those that do not support third party apps, grew 48.8 percent year-over-year, while smart wearables like Apple Watch and certain Fitbit and Garmin products declined 27.2 percent over the same period.
On a higher level the numbers illustrate Apple's competition in the wearable category as a whole. Smartwatch devices are in a battle for valuable wrist space — users rarely wear a smartwatch on one wrist and a fitness tracker on the other.
Apple is expected to announce a refreshed Apple Watch with GPS capabilities, better waterproofing and a larger battery at a special event tomorrow.
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76 Comments
Would I buy another one? No, I think I'm done. I don't use 80% of the features/apps on it. I love the notifications, but other than that, the screen is just too small to be useful to me.
Great time to compare "market share", just when Apple is about to announce Watch 2.
Oh no! Someone put the Apple Watch in the same category as "basic wearables" for maximum headlines! Click here for doom!
wait... a fitbit watch is being compared to Apple Watch?!?!
I wonder if "Units Shipped" for Fitbit includes replacement units? Those things don't have a very long lifespan. Especially the Charge HR. I'm awaiting my second replacement, there are 3 other people in my family that bought one at the same time as me (Less than 12 months ago) and they are all on at least their second replacement. Also I've spoken to several other friends and co-workers that have them and have only found one person that hasn't had to have a replacement unit (they only used it for a few months and now it's sitting in the drawer.
I know that this isn't a statically significant number of users but I highly doubt it's a rare occurrence.