Today’s Worldwide Quarterly Wearable Device Tracker by IDC suggested that Samsung is out of top 5 wearables vendor list in the third quarter of 2015.
Chinese vendor XTC, a subsidiary of BBK, beat Samsung Electronics for the number five position by 100,000 units in its worldwide debut. XTC maintained its focus exclusively within China, and with just one device: the Y01, a children’s phone watch.
Samsung could not maintain its position primarily due to the lack of availability of low-cost wearable models in its kitty for the mass markets.
The other interesting news is that Chinese vendor Xiaomi is challenging the number two position of Apple in the global wearables market. The difference between Xiaomi and Apple is just 0.2 million units.
Apple captured the second position in its launch quarter itself. Apple could face challenging situation if they do not have enough cost effective smart watches for masses.
All devices vendors shipped 21 million units of wearables in Q3 2015, up 197.6 percent from 7.1 million units in Q3 2014. The growth was fuelled by Chinese wearables makers. Their home market became a hot destination for wearable makers. India, though one of the fastest growing smartphone markets in the world, does not have a good wearable market at present.
IDC said China has quickly emerged as the fastest-growing wearables market, attracting companies eager to compete on price and feature sets.
“In addition, multiple vendors have experimented with a broad range of products and applications. The challenge, however, is whether these vendors can expand their presence, as few have extended beyond the country’s borders and into other markets,” said Ramon Llamas, research manager for IDC’s Wearables team.
Smart watches have drawn increased attention to the market from Apple, Motorola, Pebble, and Samsung. But this has not dampened interest in fitness trackers.
Fitbit relied on its popular Fitbit Charge and Fitbit Surge models to maintain its leadership in the worldwide wearables market.
Xiaomi’s inexpensive Mi Band buoyed volumes higher during the quarter, with more than 97 percent of its volumes shipping into China.
Garmin is the number four vendor. Garmin focuses on athletes wearables for running, golf, swimming, hiking, and aquatics.
image source: imore smartwatch
Baburajan K
editor@telecomlead.com
