Xiaomi beats Fitbit, Apple in Q2 to become largest wearables vendor in the world

Key highlights:

• Xiaomi saw a 23% rise as it shipped 3.7 million wearables worldwide in Q2 2017
• Xiaomi captured 17% market share in the wearables market to beat Fitbit and Apple
• Fitbit's market share almost halved from 29% a year ago

Xiaomi has catapulted itself to become the No.1 wearables vendor in Q2 2017 as it captured 17% of the market share overtaking leaders in the segment such as Fitbit and Apple.

Xiaomi has shipped 3.7 million wearables worldwide in Q2 2017, which was a 23% annual rise from the same quarter last year where it had shipped 3 million units of wearable devices, according to a Strategy Analytics report.

Neil Mawston, Executive Director at Strategy Analytics, said that Xiaomi’s Mi Band fitness trackers are wildly popular in China, due to their highly competitive pricing and rich features such as heart-rate monitors, step-counters and calendar alerts.

Fitbit, on the other hand, shipped 3.4 million wearables for 16% marketshare worldwide in Q2 2017, almost halving from 29% a year ago.

“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 Mawston.

Apple's wearables, however, saw a large growth in the shipments of wearables at 2.8 million during Q2 2017 from just 1.8 million in the same quarter last year. This was a massive 58% growth annually However, it was just not enough to push it through to the No. 1 spot.

Apple's market share in the wearables segment increased significantly to 13% during the quarter from just 9% in the same quarter last year.

Cliff Raskind, Director at Strategy Analytics, said, “Apple has for now lost its wearables leadership to Xiaomi, due to a lack of presence in the sizeable fitness-band subcategory. However, the rumored 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.”

The global wearables shipments reached 22 million units in the second quarter of 2017, said the report.

Steven Waltzer, Industry Analyst at Strategy Analytics, said, “Global wearables shipments reached 21.6 million units in Q2 2017, rising 8 percent annually from 20 million in Q2 2016. Strong demand for low-cost fitnessbands in China and premium smartwatches across the United States drove the uptick.”

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