According to a new report from IDC, manufacturers shipped 18.1 million wearable computing devices in the second quarter, a 223.2 percent year-over-year increase. The big news from the quarter was the release of the Apple Watch, which gave Apple a 20 percent share of the market even though this was the first time it had ever released a wearable.
“On a scale from 1 to 10, Apple’s participation is an 11. Without a doubt, Apple brings so much to the wearables industry for reasons mentioned in the report,” Ramon Llamas, research manager for wearables and mobile phones at IDC, said. “In a way, Apple is one of the silver bullets for the success of the overall market. Now that Apple is in the wearables market, as an analyst, I want to see it thrive by developing the product and the service. That will entice more customers, raise the bar for the competition, and get the attention of end-users.”
FitBit remains the market leader with a 25 percent share. Xiaomi was third at 17 percent, followed by Garmin and Samsung.
