14 DAY TRIAL // Apple will take the wraps off the Apple Watch Series 4 in just one week, and this new model is projected to help the Cupertino-based tech giant maintain its lead ahead of all the other companies committed to wearables.
Because according to new IDC data, Apple Watch continues to be the leading smartwatch on the market with no less than 4.7 million units sold in the second quarter of 2018
Total wearable sales during the quarter reached 27.9 million units, up from 26.4 million units a year ago.
Apple itself performed strong thanks to a 38.4 percent year-over-year growth, accounting for 17 percent of the market and growing from 3.4 million units sold a year ago.
Fitbit, the biggest drop
Xiaomi came in second with 4.2 million sold units, an improvement from 3.5 million units a year ago, followed by Fitbit, which actually declined to just 2.7 million units sold during the said quarter. Fitbit’s performance is a little unexpected given the company’s lineup includes new models, and its market share fell from 12.8 percent to 9.5 percent.
Fitbit recorded the biggest year-over-year drop during the quarter, with IDC saying it declined 21.7 percent.
“Apple maintained its position atop the wearables market with market-beating growth and continued demand for its LTE-enabled Watch. This makes it a welcome addition to many telco channels worldwide. Now that the company has unveiled watchOS 5, it has also begun to chart out potential replacement cycles as the latest version of Apple’s smartwatch platform will be compatible only with Series 1 and later,” IDC says.
Apple’s new smartwatch coming September 12 features a bigger screen thanks to an edge-to-edge design approach, with more upgrades likely to be made under the hood. The device could come with a UV complication that may rely either on UV sensors or on information collected from third-party services based on user location.
