Current state of the wearable market: Apple Watch sales last year reached 11.6 million units

Who is the leader in the smart wristband market? The answer is not Apple Watch, nor the wristband devices launched by Samsung, Xiaomi, etc. According to a report released this week by the market research organization Internet Data Center, Fitbit still leads other competitors in the past year, with a shipment volume of 21 million units. Apple's performance is not bad either. Its wearable devices have sold 11.6 million units in nine months since they were launched, ranking third in the market after Xiaomi. In terms of profit margin, it is much higher than other brands such as Xiaomi.

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Currently, the world's wearable devices, mainly including fitness trackers and smart watches, had a total shipment of 78.1 million units in 2015, an increase of 172% over 2014. This growth was mainly due to the increasing popularity of low-cost trackers produced by companies such as Fitbit, as well as the appeal of high-end products such as Apple Watch. More than a third of sales in 2015 came from the fourth quarter, with sales increasing by 127% year-on-year during this holiday season.

Fitbit's shipments accounted for more than 25% of all sales in 2015. IDC believes that consumers' lack of enthusiasm for Apple's first-generation wearable devices may be due to the poor linkage between the device and the software platform. Of course, consumers have higher expectations for its second-generation products, hoping that it can make up for shortcomings such as batteries.

Compared with the sales of 1.1 million Mi Bands in 2014, Xiaomi's sales in 2015 increased by more than 900% to 12 million, and its market share also soared from 4% to 15.4%. Garmin and Samsung ranked fourth and fifth in the market, with sales of 3.3 million and 3.1 million respectively, and market shares of just over 4%.

Aside from the head-on competition between Apple and Fitbit and others, IDC's report also hints that wearables will eventually enter the mainstream. "It shows that wearables are not just for tech enthusiasts and early adopters, but there is a mass market and great popularity," said Ramon Llamas, an analyst in IDC's wearables group. "Because wearables have not yet fully penetrated the mass market, there is still room for growth in many directions, including new suppliers, form factors, applications and use cases."