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Apple Named World's Largest Wearables Vendor With an Estimated 3.5M Apple Watch Shipments in Q1 2017

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Apple became the world's largest wearables vendor in the first quarter of 2017 with an estimated 3.5 million Apple Watch shipments, according to new research data shared this afternoon by Strategy Analytics.

Apple Watch shipments overtook Fitbit shipments during Q1 2017, allowing Apple to capture 15.9 percent global marketshare to become the top wearables vendor. Fitbit shipped an estimated 2.9 million wearable devices during the quarter, while Apple's closest competitor, Xiaomi, shipped an estimated 3.4 million wearable devices.

Apple's estimated 3.5 million shipments are up from an estimated 2.2 million Apple Watch shipments in the year-ago quarter. As Apple Watch shipments have grown, Fitbit shipments have dropped sharply from an estimated 4.5 million units in Q1 2016.

applewatchshipments.jpg

Xiaomi is still close to Apple at 15.5 percent global marketshare, but has seen its shipment numbers slip while Apple's have grown.
In the year-ago quarter, Xiaomi's marketshare was at 20.9 percent, while Apple's was at 12.1 percent. Fitbit, meanwhile, has dropped from 24.7 percent in Q1 2016 to 13.2 percent in Q1 2017.
Cliff Raskind, Director at Strategy Analytics, said, "Fitbit shipped 2.9 million wearables worldwide in Q1 2017, falling a huge 36 percent annually from 4.5 million in Q1 2016. Fitbit has lost its wearables leadership to Apple, due to slowing demand for its fitnessbands and a late entry to the emerging smartwatch market. Fitbit's shipments, revenue, pricing and profit are all shrinking at the moment and the company has a major fight on its hands to recover this year."
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Apple does not share official Apple Watch sales numbers, instead lumping the device into its "Other Products" category that also includes the Apple TV, Beats products, iPod, and Apple-branded and third-party accessories, so Apple Watch sales numbers shared by various analytics firms are all estimates.

Revenue from "Other Products" was $2.87 billion during the second quarter of 2017 according to Apple's recently released earnings report, up from $2.19 in the year-ago quarter. According to Apple CEO Tim Cook, Apple Watch sales have nearly doubled year-over-year.

"Combine Apple Watch, AirPods, and Beats and our revenue from wearable products in the last four quarters was the size of a Fortune 500 company," said Cook.

Update: According to Fitbit, which does publish its sales numbers, 3 million Fitbits were sold during 1Q 2017, not 2.9 million.

Article Link: Apple Named World's Largest Wearables Vendor With an Estimated 3.5M Apple Watch Shipments in Q1 2017
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2017/05/04/apple-worlds-largest-wearables-vendor/
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Reactions: Sunny1990
I own an apple watch Gen 1 but cannot understand how Apple has now achieved the biggest market share. There are no compelling features in the watch that would make me rush and buy Gen 3 when it is eventually released.
 
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Reactions: NachoGrande, 576316 and Soccertess
Love my series 2 watch does everything i need it to do.
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polee said:
I own an apple watch Gen 1 but cannot understand how Apple has now achieved the biggest market share. There are no compelling features in the watch that would make me rush and buy Gen 3 when it is eventually released.
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The logo of course

That said upgrading from the firsr gen to series 2 was worth it for the GPS, water resistance and the speed
 
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Reactions: jhfenton, marvz, Jamalien and 2 others
I bought a series 1 about two months ago and I can say it provides nothing useful to me lol. I just like how it looks. That's it.
 
polee said:
I own an apple watch Gen 1 but cannot understand how Apple has now achieved the biggest market share. There are no compelling features in the watch that would make me rush and buy Gen 3 when it is eventually released.
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What other competitors have "Compelling features" over the Apple Watch? They all really do the same thing, but the Apple Watch executes notifications and is an excellent general fitness tracker.
 
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Reactions: BPresh, Cameroncafe10a, deasys and 11 others
All the the smartwatches are basically the same and primary they are all one thing. They tell the time.

The fact that I get an excellent fitness tracker, notifications without pulling out my phone, access to my calendar, access to weather, and some other good stuff, means it's going great for me. If I wanted to record 4K video I'm don't want to be doing on my watch. I also don't want to be talking into my watch so if it sucks for that don't expect it to get magically better.
 
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Reactions: Middy.uk and nikicampos
Great to hear! I was once a skeptic of the Apple Watch but a few months ago decided to give it a chance. I have used it everyday since I purchased and the fitness tracking has helped motivate me to exercise more. You never know how some devices will impact your life unless you use them first hand.
 
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Reactions: deasys, Keane16, shk718 and 5 others
I think it's great they are refocusing the message on "fitness". I'm a nationally ranked NPC Mens Physique competitor ... and *love* training with my watch.

The 1st one was okay. The 2nd even better. I see this category continuing to be *impressive* as functionality grows.

I can't wait.
 
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Relentless Power said:
What other competitors have "Compelling features" over the Apple Watch? They all really do the same thing, but the Apple Watch executes notifications and is an excellent general fitness tracker.
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Compelling Apple Watch feature: a rectangular display with a 4:5 aspect ratio.
 
Still nothing compared to the behemoth the Watch will become in some years.

Apple is in all-in mode, no competitor has the slightest chance to match the kind of applied medical research that will transform a nice gadget into a must have, life saving revolution in health care.
 
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Reactions: ownamac, Zirel, BvizioN and 7 others
I predict that the Apple Watch will overtake Mac sales within 2 years if not sooner.
I see service workers who do not have a computer screen in front of them and cannot be looking at their phones during work hours wearing them more and more. That's health-care workers, bank workers, clerks of all types .....basically anyone addicted to notifications but unable to pull out their phones without being reprimanded.

And this is just today, with the basic set of usefulness in this primitive iteration. The Watch will become indispensable once Apple health monitoring breakthroughs start appearing in future versions. (the rumored glucose monitoring breakthrough we have been hearing about for example)

...And let's be real here, only the likes of Apple, Google, Microsoft, GE, IBM and others can afford this type of lavish R&D spending on speculative technologies. Fitbit is dead in the water unless it is bought out by a bigger fish.
 
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Rogifan said:
And Strategy Analytics gets their data from where?
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I'm not sure where they get their data from, but I've seen others attempt to extrapolate based on the revenue of 'other' category that Apple reports. I believe they did it by following the trajectory of other sales before the Watch launched and then worked out the difference. I assume at best it's just an estimate. But their estimated numbers do line up with Cook mentioning that sales of the watch were double the previous year (or quarter was it?)
 
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