The wearables market – which includes fitness devices, smartwatches and more – is experiencing steady growth. The International Data Corporation (IDC) suggests that Xiaomi is the second biggest wearable seller in the world, coming in just after Fitbit.
On Wednesday, June 3, IDC released a report stating that wearable device vendors shipped 11.4 million wearables in Q1 of 2015, which represents an increase of 200 percent in comparison to the same period in 2014.
As the competition in the wearables market increases, many companies have launched a number of wearables just to keep up. However, Xiaomi – a Chinese company that is headquartered in Beijing – has just one wearable in its portfolio: the Mi Band.
The Mi Band is a fitness monitor and sleep tracker that resembles a bracelet. Xiaomi Mi Band was launched in July of last year, going on sale in China in August.
IDC revealed that Xiaomi shipped 2.8 million units of Mi Band in the first quarter of 2015, which captured 24.6 percent of the wearables market share.
The Mi Band was initially available just in China and reached the Indian market this April. Xiaomi also announced that it has plans to sell the Mi Band in more countries in the near term.
"Xiaomi started off the year by blasting through the one million unit mark with its Mi Band for the first time, a significant feat made all the more impressive considering the device just started shipping during the second half of 2014," according to the IDC report.
The top position in the wearables market is held by American company Fitbit, which sells a variety of activity trackers such as the Fitbit Ultra, Fitbit One, Fitbit Flex, Fitbit Force and Fitbit Zip, among others. In Q1 this year, Fitbit shipped more than 3.9 million wearables and occupied 34.2 percent of the market.
In the third place is Garmin, with 6.1 percent market share, followed by Samsung, which has 5.3 percent of the wearables market.
Smartwatches are gaining popularity, but from the IDC report, it seems that smartwatches have been trumped by fitness and activity trackers. However, many smartwatches now include a heart rate monitor and other fitness tracking features, which means that smartwatches may also gain more momentum in the near term.
The wearables market is still at a nascent stage. It may not be long before big-wigs like Apple, Samsung and others launch more wearables to outshine the products of smaller competitive companies.
