AppleInsider Staff
New research shows Apple extended an already significant lead in the wearables market during the first quarter of 2020 on the back of strong demand for AirPods and Beats products.
According to estimates from IDC, Apple shipped 21.2 million Apple Watch, AirPods and Beats units during the three month period ending in March to capture 29.3% of the market. That figure is up a whopping 59.9% from 13.3 million units shipped in the year-ago quarter.
IDC believes Apple Watch shipments declined during the period, but the slowdown was offset by increased interest in AirPods and Beats headphones. The estimated dip in Apple Watch sales runs contrary to strong numbers seen in a report from Strategy Analytics earlier this month.
"Consumers were clamoring for these sophisticated earpieces not only for the ability to playback audio but also to help them increase productivity, as many of them were forced to work from home and sought ways to reduce surrounding noise while staying connected to their smartphones and smart assistants," said Jitesh Ubrani, research manager for IDC Mobile Device Trackers.
Second place Xiaomi also saw growth with shipments of 10.1 million units for a 14% slice of the market, up 56.4% year-over-year.
Samsung, Huawei and Fitbit followed with a respective 8.6 million, 8.1 million and 2.2 million shipments during the quarter to take 11.9%, 11.1% and 3% of the market.
All top-five companies exhibited increased marketshare save for Fitbit, which dipped 26.1% from the year prior. The firm banks almost exclusively on sales of its wearable health tracking devices.
It should be noted that IDC and other research firms lack clear insight into Apple's supply chain and have in the past been criticized for publishing largely incorrect estimates. Apple, however, no longer provides unit sales in its quarterly reports, leaving a void filled by third-party companies or independent analysts.
Apple in a quarterly conference call for its second fiscal quarter of 2020 said its wearables division is bringing in revenues equivalent to a Fortune 140 company. The segment earned $6.3 billion during the quarter, up from $5.1 billion in 2019. Wearables, together with Apple's services arm, helped buoy earnings as other segments suffered due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
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7 Comments
For all the lower-cost AirPod pretenders that get sold (which range from awful to adequate at best) -- there's a reason why Apple continues to do well in this and almost every market in which it competes: many consumers recognize originality, high-quality engineering, good workmanship, and Apple's goals in making the things it does.
Apple redefines ‘Doomed’ once again.
No surprise to me. I'm one of the customers who helped drive up the numbers as I bought a wearable in Q1.
I've paid more for my AirPods Pro than for HomePods and I still think it was worth it.
I've never had a problem with the original AirPods staying in my ear. The AirPods Pro only make it better and provide great sound isolation. I love the output quality.
Now that I'm working from home, I've switched to listening to music on my HomePods pair a lot more than my AirPods Pro, but nothing beats the AirPods when wanting to listen to music and not disturb anyone else around.
Not the wisest wording for a title, given the moment. Good and unsurprising news though.
I have seen countless video call interviews in news segments recently and, almost all of them, had some sort of apple product in them, mostly AirPods.