New figures released by IDC on the numbers of wearables sold in Q2 2015 show that, despite the hype, the Apple Watch has struggled to overcome the might of Fitbit in the increasingly competitive market.
This report from the analytics company is the first to feature the Apple Watch among those on the market and, despite doing better than almost all of the wearables out there, it still can’t beat Fitbit to the top spot.
According to its figures, Apple shipped 3.6m units of the Apple Watch in Q2 2015, which isn’t too far off Fitbit, which shipped 4.4m during the same period.
When combined, both Apple and Fitbit alone have shipped more wearables this quarter than all companies achieved during the same period back in 2014.
In Q2 2014, the total wearables shipped amounted to 5.6m units, compared with 18.1m that were shipped this year, marking a 223.2pc increase.
This, IDC’s research manager for wearables Ramon Llamas said, is due to what could be called the ‘Apple effect’.
IDC wearables graph via IDC
“Anytime Apple enters a new market, not only does it draw attention to itself, but to the market as a whole. Its participation benefits multiple players and platforms within the wearables ecosystem and ultimately drives total volumes higher.
“Fairly or not, Apple will become the stick against which other wearables are measured, and competing vendors need to stay current or ahead of Apple.”
It was also a debut appearance in the report for Chinese manufacturer Xiaomi, which follows Apple as the company with the third-highest amount of sales, accounting for 3.1m in Q2 2015.
Meanwhile, the entry of Apple and Xiaomi into the market has dampened Samsung’s efforts to release wearables, as it is the only company in the top-five to see a 25pc decrease in growth from the previous year.
Apple Watch image via Shutterstock
