Wearable Market At An All-Time High; Apple Watch Dwarfing Competition

From being additional accessories to becoming the go-to device for fitness and other applications, wearables have climbed the ladder to the mainstream in a short period. These devices range from smartwatches to fitness bands to AR glasses, and as per research firm IDC, more than 100 million wearables have been shipped for the first time in Q1 2021- a 34.4% increase YoY.

While such numbers have been seen in the fourth quarter during the holiday season, but this is the first time Q1 sales have shown such promising results. While the wearables market has seen exponential growth in the past several years, it's no match to the number of smartphone units sold every quarter or year.

Apple Leading The Way

According to IDC, Apple is way ahead of its peers, thanks to the Apple Watch, which has sold more units than any other smartwatch out there. In the first quarter of this year, Apple grabbed a market share of 28.8%, followed by Samsung and Xiaomi with 11.3% and 9.7% respectively, and Huawei at 8.2%. Then there's a steep drop with BoAt having 2.9%.

However, experts believe that small companies such as BoAt are witnessing good YoY growth in the wearables segment. "Larger companies have certainly drawn attention to the worldwide wearables market, yet it is the smaller companies fueling growth," said Ramon T. Llamas, research director for IDC's wearables team.

"For example, BoAt, the number five company on our list, has succeeded by concentrating only on the Indian market and was rewarded with triple-digit growth. Another example comes from Oura, whose fitness-tracking ring caught the attention of major sports teams and consumers. These and many other companies contributed to the Others category, which posted 55.5% year-over-year growth," he added.

Wearable Market To Boom In Future

Major firms such as Apple and Samsung have already addressed that wearables are among the fastest-growing devices that drive revenues and new customers. The companies have also said that this category will be their focal point in the coming years.

As of now, the wearable market is dominated by fitness trackers, but the new data hints at signs of new additional wearables that might become mainstream devices in the coming days. Analysts believe they will continue to grow in the future.

There's a possibility of a personal computing ecosystem where users will have several devices for different applications rather than being dependent on a smartphone, tablet, or laptop. However, if big tech firms continue to make devices as they do now, most wearable devices will treat smartphones as the center point of all connected devices.