Apple Watch catching up to Fitbit in wearables market

Due to the drastic difference in average selling price between models of Apple Watch and other wearables however, Apple is highly likely to be far ahead in terms of profits.

Apple Watch, however, is hot at Fitbit’s heels and claims the second position with 3.6 million units shipped in Q2.

Some reports from Apple suppliers have indicated low sales figures, but BestBuy recently said that demand for the Apple Watch was so strong that the retailer would start carrying the device in all of its stores.

Of course, Apple has helped the wearables market grow, too; total shipments for the quarter came to 18.1 million units, and this was up a whopping 223.2 percent compared with the previous year. “Everyone will be watching to see what other wearable devices it decides to launch”.

Apple debuted as the second-largest vendor in the wearables market, and dominated the “smart wearables” sub-category, which IDC defines as devices that can run third-party applications: the Apple Watch accounted for two out of every three smart wearables shipped during the quarter. “Apple has clearly garnered an impressive lead in this space and its dominance is expected to continue”, Jitesh Ubrani, senior research analyst at IDC, said in the report. It is clear that as the Apple Watch, the Moto 360, and the LG Watch Urbane outperform fitness bands in the hearts of consumers.

“It’s worth noting that Fitbit only sells basic wearables – a category that is expected to lose share over the next few years, leaving Apple poised to become the next market leader for all wearables”, the IDC report said.

The fact that Apple has gained so much ground so quickly might seem like bad news for Fitbit and other makers of wearable devices like Samsung and Garmin. The two companies make very different products, with Fitbit devices focused on fitness and the Apple Watch capable of doing everything from giving directions to letting users check email.

When combined, the both Apple and Fitbit alone have shipped more wearables this quarter than all companies achieved during the same period back in 2014. Xiaomi is the only other vendor with several million unit shipments.