Apple Watch Dominates Wearables Market as Fitbit Falters
If you thought the Apple Watch was dead in the waters, new research says that’s not true. In fact, the latest numbers reported by CNBC show that Cupertino’s wearables are leading the pack, as Apple Watch captured the largest segment of the market for the first time since the third quarter of 2015.
Apple, the Largest Seller of Wearables
For the first quarter of 2017, Apple sold more wearables than any other manufacturer. Shipments of the Apple Watch rose to 22 million units sold in the first three months of 2017. That’s an increase of almost four million wearables over the first quarter of 2016.
Cupertino doesn’t divulge exact sales figures for Apple Watch. However, Strategy Analytics suggests that Apple sold 3.5 million units in the first quarter of 2017. That’s up from 2.2 million the year before. The Apple Watch captured 15.9 percent of the market for wearables, cinching first place for Cupertino in the race to put fancy devices on our wrists.
The Fitbit Loses Its Polish
Fitbit, on the other hand, has seen a dramatic decrease in sales. During the first quarter, Fitbit shipped 2.9 million devices, a 35 percent decrease over 2016’s first quarter. The wearable manufacturer’s market share slipped to 13.2 percent, down from 24.7 percent in 2016’s first quarter.
Fitbit has been in trouble recently, and cut 110 jobs in January 2017. Despite this, the company beat analyst estimates for its first-quarter earnings, and says its restructuring plan went well. Fitbit could have a new full-featured smartwatch on the horizon, which may help the company recapture some of the market share in wearables.
We Still Think Apple Watch Needs to Change
We never thought the Apple Watch was dead, but we do think Apple’s wearables have some serious changes to make going into the third generation. As Bryan Wolfe pointed out, even the Apple Watch Series 2 suffers from slow app response time. Also, the price of Cupertino’s wearable device remains high for both the device itself and the accessories it makes for the Apple Watch. Be sure to check out Wolfe’s article below for his assessment of what all needs to change with Apple Watch Series 3.