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Apple shipped more than 43.4 million wearables in the last quarter of 2019, according to data compiled by research firm IDC (via DigiTimes).

IDC-wearables-figures-Q419.jpg

The figures for Apple include unit shipments of Apple Watch, AirPods, AirPods Pro, and its Beats lineup. Taken together, the data suggests Apple had a 36.5 percent share of the wearables market. The only blot on its report card was a slight decline in Apple Watch shipments over the quarter because of supply shortages.

According to IDC, Xiaomi came a distant second in Q419, with 12.8 million unit shipments (9.4 million of which were wristbands) and just 10.8 percent market share. Shipments of Samsung's Galaxy Active and Active 2 smartwatches saw the company come third with 10.5 million units shipped and an 8.8 percent market share.
"2019 marked a strong step forward for the worldwide wearables market," said Ramon Llamas, research director for IDC's Wearables Team. "Hearables were the big story due to new product introductions and more smartphones cutting the cord with traditional earphones, practically driving users to purchase a hearable. Not to be overshadowed were smartwatches and fitness trackers, which both posted record annual volumes from an abundance of lower-cost models."
The global wearables market grew by 82.3 percent in the fourth quarter of 2019, reaching a new high of 118.9 million devices shipped, according to IDC data.

The rapid growth is said to have been mainly due to the increasing popularity of earbuds and headphones, which captured 55.3 percent of the entire market. Other popular categories during the quarter included smartwatches (15.3 percent) and wrist bands (17.7 percent).

Across the whole of 2019, Apple is said to have shipped more than 106 million units in the market, up 121.7 percent from the previous year.

DigiTimes sparked interest recently by suggesting Apple is planning to launch an "AirPod Pro Lite," describing the earbuds as an "entry-level version of Apple's AirPods Pro series." Apple already offers AirPods for $50 less than AirPods Pro, so it's unclear how "AirPods Pro Lite" would fit into Apple's lineup.

According to Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, Apple is also prepping new high-end over-ear headphones to round out its wearable lineup. Icons allegedly representing the Apple-branded headphones were recently found in leaked iOS 14 code.

A Bloomberg report claimed Apple's upcoming over-ear wireless headphones will feature active noise-canceling and launch in the second half of 2019 for the over-ear headphones, but Kuo in January 2020 said that "high-end Bluetooth headphones" would launch during the first half of the year, which could refer to the same product.

Article Link: IDC: Apple Dominated the Wearables Market Last Quarter on Popularity of Apple Watch, AirPods, and Beats
 
The Watch is the best smartwatch on the market so far. I love my Series 4, I'm looking forward to what they announce with this years Series 6.
 
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Samsung’s YoY growth is pretty impressive. While their totaled shipped numbers are still significantly lower, they’re showing good growth. I’ve noticed this in the wild too. I have started to see many more of the latest iteration of their watch, unsure of the designation.
 
And this (plus iPhone’s AR) is only the rolling start for the Next Big Thing.

Samsung’s YoY growth is pretty impressive. While their totaled shipped numbers are still significantly lower, they’re showing good growth. I’ve noticed this in the wild too. I have started to see many more of the latest iteration of their watch, unsure of the designation.

They are trying to build critical mass by giving away their wearables, bundled with phones or tablets purchases.
 
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This really shows just how strong of a move it was for Tim Cook and Apple to pivot away from strictly iPhone a few years back. Wearables are a major category moving forward with a ton of opportunity for growth.
 
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This really shows just how strong of a move it was for Tim Cook and Apple to pivot away from strictly iPhone a few years back. Wearables are a major category moving forward with a ton of opportunity for growth.

I think many people underestimate how strategic and forward-thinking Cook's move was/is for Apple. As CEO he deserves a ton of credit. AR is the next step, with a ton of potential.
 
This really shows just how strong of a move it was for Tim Cook and Apple to pivot away from strictly iPhone a few years back. Wearables are a major category moving forward with a ton of opportunity for growth.

Latest quarterly reports show that iPhone is 61% of Apple's revenue while wearables + home is only 11%.

I kind of doubt wearables + home will keep growing. My Apple Watch is nice and fine, but I kind of doubt I'll ever replace it. My wife pretty much never wears hers. If Apple Watch were a compelling product that felt like it was worth replacing regularly, sure. But I think it's more likely that it already peaked. The category is growing because of the AirPods, not the Apple Watch, and I expect that will peak fairly soon, too.

Services being as large as it is is surprising. How on earth is Apple making $13B/quarter on that? Maybe 1 in 10 people in the world own an Apple product... so that's 700M owners. They're spending an average of $20/quarter on Apple's services? What? Is that the $5/month that Apple charges for cloud backups? That seems like an absolutely insane take-rate...

But then Apple would have nowhere to grow with that, if the take-rate is already so high...
 
Latest quarterly reports show that iPhone is 61% of Apple's revenue while wearables + home is only 11%.

I kind of doubt wearables + home will keep growing. My Apple Watch is nice and fine, but I kind of doubt I'll ever replace it. My wife pretty much never wears hers. If Apple Watch were a compelling product that felt like it was worth replacing regularly, sure. But I think it's more likely that it already peaked. The category is growing because of the AirPods, not the Apple Watch, and I expect that will peak fairly soon, too.

Services being as large as it is is surprising. How on earth is Apple making $13B/quarter on that? Maybe 1 in 10 people in the world own an Apple product... so that's 700M owners. They're spending an average of $20/quarter on Apple's services? What? Is that the $5/month that Apple charges for cloud backups? That seems like an absolutely insane take-rate...

But then Apple would have nowhere to grow with that, if the take-rate is already so high...

You make some good points.

Specifically on the AirPods as the source of growth...yeah, that could be a concern. They're ear buds with very little to truly differentiate them. They have great tech but...they are not head and shoulders above anyone here.

Regarding "services" I've wondered the same. One thing to note is that Apple has touted its "services" segment for a while and, apparently, it has included AppleCare. Uh okay. Yeah, technically a service. But I don't imagine most people are thinking "extended warranty" when they hear "services". This is similar to my snarky comment about headphones being "wearables". I suspect most people imagine something like the watch as "wearables". It's technically fair to bundle them together. But things like Apple Care and headphones aren't exactly serious competitive differentiators.
 
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I guess if we can re-label headphones and ear buds as "wearables" then...

:rolleyes:

from idc. No re-label necessary
Product Highlights
Earwear posted the highest year-over-year growth and amassed the most market share compared to all other wearable products, and while the 3Q19 results reached a new record quarter, it set up 4Q19 with a strong foundation from which to build. Apple was well ahead of the competition with over 22.7 million units (inclusive of Beats and AirPods). Following Apple was Samsung with 5.6M pairs of Galaxy Buds and other JBL Branded hearables. Sony, a more traditional headphone maker, ranked third with over 2M hearables shipped. The company's inclusion of active noise-cancelling in its premium lineup has helped set itself apart though with the release of the AirPods Pro and even Amazon's Echo Buds, Sony may soon lose this distinction.

Wristbands maintained their popularity within the market ahead of smartwatches and other wearable devices, driven by its straightforward value proposition and lowering price points. Added on top of this is the increased functionality that allow some wristbands to mimic the capabilities of their smartwatch cousins, keeping them relevant in the market.

Smartwatches tracked closely to, but finished slightly behind, wristbands during a quarter in which many companies relied on older models while customers eagerly awaited new models heading into 4Q19. Still, with significant markdowns available, price-sensitive customers took advantage of the lower prices for devices capable of many, if not most, of the features of its newer cousins. Apple once again maintained the lead followed by Samsung in second place. BBK, the maker of kids watches ranked third, shipping 1.8M smartwatches during the quarter. Rounding out the top 5 were Fitbit with 1.7M smartwatches, and Garmin with over 900K units.
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Latest quarterly reports show that iPhone is 61% of Apple's revenue while wearables + home is only 11%.

I kind of doubt wearables + home will keep growing. My Apple Watch is nice and fine, but I kind of doubt I'll ever replace it. My wife pretty much never wears hers. If Apple Watch were a compelling product that felt like it was worth replacing regularly, sure. But I think it's more likely that it already peaked. The category is growing because of the AirPods, not the Apple Watch, and I expect that will peak fairly soon, too.
Maybe you are right, maybe you are not. Personally, we wear our Apple watches every day (I am even listening to music playing from my Apple Watch to my AirPods Pro right now), I even wear mine 7/24 to monitor my heart rate. the category is adding new health monitoring, Apple Watch is no exception.

Honestly, I find anyone portending to speak for the market is doomed to failure. The market decides what people buy and people make.
 
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So much interest in the bright, shiny, new. So little concern that many of the key elements in these disposables cannot be recycled, that vast areas of land are mined, and gigantic pools of toxic byproduct saturate the soils and leak into the rivers. Buy hey, we don't live in those areas, and those that do are marginals wrt net worth. Those that do not want to contribute to this are denied the right to repair. So wonderful on Tim and Apple. They worked hard to ensure society is wedded to this system. Shareholder value above all else.
 
....I kind of doubt wearables + home will keep growing. My Apple Watch is nice and fine, but I kind of doubt I'll ever replace it. My wife pretty much never wears hers. If Apple Watch were a compelling product that felt like it was worth replacing regularly, sure. But I think it's more likely that it already peaked. The category is growing because of the AirPods, not the Apple Watch, and I expect that will peak fairly soon, ....
Tough to derive a billion+ dollar entire segment based on anecdotal, personal feelings.
 
I think many people underestimate how strategic and forward-thinking Cook's move was/is for Apple. As CEO he deserves a ton of credit. AR is the next step, with a ton of potential.

idk it Cook deserves as much credit as is being owed here. Apple should be given credit for making the watch as high grade as they have. Most other smart watches were gimmicks or tech bands that you’d never be caught dead with in a setting where fashion it discretion was a consideration. The Apple Watch has become a valid addition to a line of fashion accessories and even somewhat conservative time pieces. For this accomplishment the collective team of industrial designers and iOS engineers deserve credit.
 
idk it Cook deserves as much credit as is being owed here. Apple should be given credit for making the watch as high grade as they have. Most other smart watches were gimmicks or tech bands that you’d never be caught dead with in a setting where fashion it discretion was a consideration. The Apple Watch has become a valid addition to a line of fashion accessories and even somewhat conservative time pieces. For this accomplishment the collective team of industrial designers and iOS engineers deserve credit.

True. But I wasn't speaking about the Watch. Rather, the strategic shift towards markets and growth beyond computer and phone markets, which are stagnating. And how AR will be Apple's next big entry.
 
I think many people underestimate how strategic and forward-thinking Cook's move was/is for Apple. As CEO he deserves a ton of credit. AR is the next step, with a ton of potential.

I agree. He of course doesn't have the vision like Jobs did, but he has been able to get Apple into the right areas for the future. I think he is massively undervalued.
 
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