According to IDC, sales of wearable devices grew by 31.4%, reaching a record high of 59.3 million units only in the fourth quarter of last year. For the whole of 2018, sales of such devices grew by 27.5% to 172.2 million. The company explains the rapid growth of the market by popularity of primarily wireless headphones, produced not only by smartphone manufacturers like Apple, Samsung, Huawei but also others electronics and audio equipment manufacturers — JBL, Bose, Beats, Marshall etc. Sales of wireless Bluetooth headphones accounted for a quarter of all wearable device sales for 2018. And in the last quarter of the year, sales of such headphones increased by 66%.
Smart watch continues to be another driver of the wearable device market - in the fourth quarter their global sales grew by 55% compared to the fourth quarter of 2017 and accounted for 34% of all wearable device sales for the quarter.
Smart wristbands continue to maintain a significant market share (about 30%). Experts explain this successful launch of new models from companies such as Xiaomi, Huawei and Fitbit.
IDC experts emphasize that in the near future market attention will be riveted to the rapidly growing segment of wireless headphones.
Apple is still the leader of the wearable device market (its share is 27.4%). The company also recorded a sharp increase in sales of wireless headphones.
Chinese Xiaomi is on the second place (12.6%), Huawei is on the third place (9.6%).
At the end of 2018, Fitbit (market share of 9.4%) and Samsung (6.8%) were among the five largest market players. However, fragmentation in the market of wearable devices continues to be very high - all other manufacturers occupy 34.3% of the market.
It is noteworthy that the sharp increase in sales of wearable devices in 2018 occurred against the background of a noticeable decline in sales of smartphones over the same period. According to the calculations of the same IDC, last year the global supply of smartphones decreased by 4.1% to 1.4 billion units - such a dynamic became the worst for the whole period of observation.
source: bloomberg.com
Smart watch continues to be another driver of the wearable device market - in the fourth quarter their global sales grew by 55% compared to the fourth quarter of 2017 and accounted for 34% of all wearable device sales for the quarter.
Smart wristbands continue to maintain a significant market share (about 30%). Experts explain this successful launch of new models from companies such as Xiaomi, Huawei and Fitbit.
IDC experts emphasize that in the near future market attention will be riveted to the rapidly growing segment of wireless headphones.
Apple is still the leader of the wearable device market (its share is 27.4%). The company also recorded a sharp increase in sales of wireless headphones.
Chinese Xiaomi is on the second place (12.6%), Huawei is on the third place (9.6%).
At the end of 2018, Fitbit (market share of 9.4%) and Samsung (6.8%) were among the five largest market players. However, fragmentation in the market of wearable devices continues to be very high - all other manufacturers occupy 34.3% of the market.
It is noteworthy that the sharp increase in sales of wearable devices in 2018 occurred against the background of a noticeable decline in sales of smartphones over the same period. According to the calculations of the same IDC, last year the global supply of smartphones decreased by 4.1% to 1.4 billion units - such a dynamic became the worst for the whole period of observation.
source: bloomberg.com
