Apple and Xiaomi are leading the smart wearable market in Q1 of 2018. The two tech giants boast of 3.8 million and 3.7 million shipments respectively in Q1 of 2018, according to Canalys data. Although Apple’s rise of shipments can be attributed to the Watch Series 3 and the introduction of LTE on the series. While Xiaomi’s Mi Bands are always selling fast globally, so, that was expected.
Wearable bands are getting more popular and acceptable by the day, compared to smartwatches. The shipments of wearable bands grew over 35% compared to last year’s Q1. The total of shipments made in the Q1 was 20.5 million units, which is totally mind-blowing. However, smartwatches contributed 80% of total revenue from the shipments, even though it managed just 43% of the total shipments.
Apart from Apple and Xiaomi, other big guns with significantly massive shipments include Fitbit, Garmin and Huawei. These three companies filled up the 3rd, 4th and 5th position respectively, making them part of the top five vendors in Q1 2018. Apple was able to maintain its position at the top, thanks to its massive number of LTE smartwatches it shipped.
The Apple Watch 3 comes with LTE connectivity, this definitely adds revenue to the carriers because of the data subscription it requires. It’s also worthy to note that Apple represented a 59% share of the cellular-enabled smartwatch market, the company reigned supreme in that category. Garmin came second in that category, thanks to its 1 million shipped cellular-enabled watches.
