Mi Band 3 Helps Xiaomi Grab the Top Position in Global Wearable Market

Riding on the success of its Mi Band 3 in India and other markets beyond China, Xiaomi grabbed the top position with 21.5% market share in the global wearable segment in the third quarter as Apple came second with 13.1% share, the International Data Corporation (IDC) said on Tuesday. Global shipments of wearable devices reached 32 million units in the third quarter of 2018 — up 21.7% from the previous year, according to IDC’s “Worldwide Quarterly Wearable Device Tracker“.

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Though typically China accounts for well over 80% of Xiaomi’s shipment volume, that share fell to 61% as the company managed to grow its presence in other markets such as India, Europe, Middle East and Africa.

Xiaomi shipped 6.9 million wearables as compared to 4.2 million by Apple. Fitbit at third place shipped 3.5 million wearables. Many of the new basic wearables include features like notifications or simple app integrations that bleed into smartwatch territory.

“This has helped satiate consumer demand for more capable devices while also maintaining average selling prices in a market that faces plenty of downward pressure from low-cost vendors and declining smartwatch pricing,” said Jitesh Ubrani, Senior Research Analyst for IDC Mobile Device Trackers.

“As more features get added and as the price differential between basic trackers and smartwatches narrows, brands could potentially move consumers upstream to smartwatches,” he added.

New products from the likes of Fitbit, Garmin and Huawei helped the basic wearables category return to growth during the quarter, said IDC. Another driving factor was the growing demand in markets like Asia-Pacific (excluding Japan), which accounted for more than half of all shipments and grew 21.4% over the previous year.