(Image: IDC Worldwide Quarterly Wearables Tracker)
Wearable device shipments grew by 1.2 percent during the first quarter of 2018 to number 25.1 million units, according to research firm IDC, marking a decrease from the 18 percent year-on-year growth a year ago.
According to the firm's Worldwide Quarterly Wearable Device Tracker report, growth slowed due to a 9.2 percent decline in shipments of basic wearables, which IDC has defined as those that don't run third-party apps. Higher-priced smart wearables, meanwhile, from vendors such as Apple and Fitbit, grew 28.4 percent.
"Additional sensors, years of underlying data, and improved algorithms are allowing pillars of the industry like Fitbit and Apple to help identify diseases and other health irregularities," said Jitesh Ubrani, senior research analyst for IDC Mobile Device Trackers. "Meanwhile, roughly one third of all wearables included cellular connectivity this quarter, which has allowed new use cases to emerge."
Watches and wrist bands accounted for 95 percent of shipments during the quarter, IDC said. Apple was once again[1] the top wearables vendor for the quarter, with 4 million devices shipped, followed by Xiaomi, which shipped 3.7 million; Fitbit, with 2.2 million; Huawei, at 1.3 million; and Garmin, with 1.3 million devices.
Apple -- whose growth outpaced the entire market, IDC said, partly due to its cellular-connected watch entering additional markets -- increased its market share from 14.3 percent in Q1 2017 to 16.1 percent in Q1 2018.
Second-placed Xiaomi took a 14.8 percent market share for the quarter, followed by Fitbit, with an 8.7 percent market share following a year-on-year decline of 28.1 percent as it continues its business transformation[2].
Huawei, meanwhile, more than doubled its market share growth, from 2.1 percent in