Apple Took Market-Share Leadership in Wearables for Q4, All of 2017, Says IDC
Total shipments in the global wearables market set new records in Q4 and for all of 2017, with Apple riding a “surge” in smartwatch shipment volumes to overtake Fitbit and Xiaomi for “overall leadership for both the quarter and the…
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year,” said IDC in a Thursday report. Total volume for Q4 increased 7.7 percent to 37.9 million units, while shipments for the year climbed 10.3 percent to 115.4 million units, said IDC. Apple “suddenly finds itself atop the wearables market,” said the report. "Interest in smartwatches continues to grow and Apple is well-positioned to capture demand.” User tastes in smartwatches “have become more sophisticated over the past several quarters,” and Apple “pounced on the demand for cellular connectivity and streaming multimedia” in its latest Apple Watch, said IDC. Apple shipped 8 million wearables in Q4, a 57.5 percent increase from the same quarter a year earlier, for a market-leading 21 percent share, up from 14.4 percent share in Q4 of 2016, said the report. For all of 2017, Apple shipped 17.7 million wearables, 55.9 percent more than in 2016, giving it a market-leading 15.3 percent share for the year, it said. Apple’s share was only 10.8 percent for 2016, it said.