Xiaomi overtakes Fitbit, Apple in global wearable market with 17% share

Strong demand for low-cost fitness bands in China and premium smartwatches in the US drove uptick

Xiaomi has overtaken the US-based Fitbit and Apple in the global wearable market by capturing 17 per cent share of the total 22 million units that were shipped in the second quarter this year.

According to a research by Strategy Analytics on Thursday, global wearables shipments rose eight per cent annually from 20 million in the second quarter last year.

Strong demand for low-cost fitness bands in China and premium smartwatches across the US drove the uptick.

"Xiaomi captured 17 per cent global market share and overtook Fitbit and Apple to become the world's largest wearables vendor. Fitbit is at risk of being trapped in a pincer movement between the low-end fitness bands sold by Xiaomi and the fitness-led, high-end smartwatches sold by Apple," said Neil Mawston, Executive Director at Strategy Analytics.

Fitbit shipped 3.4 million wearables for 16 per cent market share worldwide in the second quarter this year, almost halving from 29 per cent a year ago.

"Apple shipped 2.8 million wearables worldwide in Q2 2017, growing 56 per cent annually from 1.8 million in Q2 2016. Apple has for now lost its wearables leadership to Xiaomi, due to a lack of presence in the sizeable fitness band sub-category," Cliff Raskind, Director at Strategy Analytics, said.

However, Raskind noted, the rumoured upcoming Watch Series 3 launch with enhanced health tracking could prove to be a popular smartwatch model and enable Apple to reclaim the top wearables spot later this year.