“What
remains to be seen is how Apple's arrival will change the landscape. The Apple
Watch will likely become the device that other wearables will be measured
against, fairly or not. This will force the competition to up their game in order
to stay on the leading edge of the market”
Research Manager for
IDC Wearables, Ramon Llamas, commenting on the performance of Wearable’s market
in the First Quarter of 2015
Folks
some amazing Stats from Analyst IDC are setting off alarms bell in the Mobile
Computing World.
According
to IDC, Wearables, a market that is made up of mostly fitness trackers and
Smartwatches, has been growing strong for the past eight (8) Quarters including
this First Quarter of 2015 as reported in the article “Shipments
in wearable devices triple as prices dip”, published June 3, 2015 by Lance
Whitney, CNET News.
So
says the stats presented in the IDC Press Release
for Wearables in the First Quarter of 2015.
In
total, some 11.4 million wearable devices were shipped worldwide, tripling the
3.8 million shipped in 2014.
Here's
a quick summary of Wearables performance in the First Quarter of 2015:
1.
3.9 million shipments for Fitbit
2.
2.8 million shipments for the US$13 Mi
Band fitness monitor from Xiaomi
3.
700,000 shipments for the Garmin Fitness
Trackers
4.
600,000 shipments for the Samsung Gear
line of Fitness Trackers
5.
500,000 shipments for the Jawbone line
of Fitness Trackers
Please
note that this is Wearables overall; Google Android Wear smartwatches only sole
720,000 for all of 2014 as noted in the article “Slow
Android Wear sales underline the challenges Google's smartwatches face”,
published Feb 12, 2015 By Mikael Ricknäs, IDG News Service, PC world and “Android
Wear Sales Dim As Apple Watch Looms”, published 2/12/2015 by Eric Zeman, Information Week.
So
it can be safely assumed that the bulk of the sales in the First Quarter of
2015 are mostly Fitness Trackers. But if that surprises you, take a second look
at Xiaomi's performance based on IDC’s Stats.
The
Chinese Dragon is poised to explode in the Wearables Market ever since they
opened their online Mi Store for US, UK, German and French customers in May
2015 as reported in the article “Xiaomi
To Sell Products In US And Europe Starting June 1st”, published
May 27, 2015 by Matt Burns, Techcrunch.
IDC Stats for Wearables
in the First Quarter of 2015 - Xiaomi No. 2 within a year as Fitness Tracker
fall below US100
Shanghai,
China-based Xiaomi accounts for some 25% of the sales in the First Quarter of
2015 as reported in the article “Report:
Xiaomi Now World’s Second Biggest Seller Of Wearables Behind Only Fitbit”,
published May 4 2015 by Jon Russell , TechCrunch
and “Xiaomi
Is The Second Biggest Wearable Seller In The World: IDC Report”, published
June 5, 12:21 AM by Sumit Passary, Tech
Times.
The
hit product is the high quality yet very low-cost US$13 Mi Band fitness
monitor, which was introduced in the Summer of 2014 in China as noted in the
article “Surprise!
Xiaomi’s New Metal-Edged Flagship Looks Like An iPhone”, published July 22,
2014 by Natasha Lomas, Techcrunch.
Within
a few month via the same rapid fire sales that has made other products like the
US$65 Xiaomi Yi, an action camera competitor to the GoPro as detailed in my MICO Wars Blog article
entitled “US$65
Xiaomi Yi is GoPro Competition on Xiaomi’s 5th Anniversary”, the US$13 Mi
Band fitness monitor became a hit both within China and the rest of East and
South Asia.
It
has proven popular because it has a thirty (30) day battery life and is
waterproof as noted in the article “Smartphone
maker Xiaomi has grabbed a Quarter of the Wearables Market, published
June 4, 2015 By Lulu Chang, DigitalTrends.
It's
is even more astounding when you consider that fact that in the First Quarter
of 2014, Xiaomi's presence in the Wearables market was non-existent based on
the IDC Stats as indicated in the article “A
$15 fitness tracker made by Xiaomi is the world’s second most popular wearable”,
published June 04, 2015 by Josh Horwitz, Quartz .
The Graph below illustrates this quit nicely.
It's
presence as the 2nd most loved wearable is also causing severe
price erosion in the Wearables market, with prices plummeting blow the US$100
mark, making it possible for even Jamaicans to afford a wearable as noted in
the article “Xiaomi
now world's second-biggest wearables maker”, published Thursday 4 June 2015
by Samuel Gibbs, The UK Guardian.
To
quote Senior Research analyst for IDC Worldwide Mobile Device Trackers Jitesh
Ubrani, it’s been a rough Quarter in a market that is still Growing Strong,
quote: “As with any young market, price erosion has been quite drastic. We now
see over 40% of the devices priced under $100, and that’s one reason why the
top five vendors have been able to grow their dominance from two-thirds of the
market in the first quarter of last year to three quarters this quarter.”
So
expect to see this on sale in Downtown Kingston sometime soon, that is, if you
are brave enough, as it still smells badly downtown as noted in my blog article
entitled “KSAC
and NWC and the Raw Sewage problem in Downtown Kingston – How to restore order
by making Downtown safe for Vendors and Shoppers”.
Xiaomi to take lead by
Q2 of 2015 - Apple Watch to dominate Smartwatch segment by Q4 2015
Don't
believe me or your jaw is still on the ground? Then scope out this nice and very
handy table as presented in the IDC Press Release
for Wearables in the First Quarter of 2015.
Please
note that this data is for the First Quarter of 2015.
The
actual sales figures for the Apple Watch, which was delivered to those who ordered
one on Friday April 25th 2015 as described in my blog article
entitled “Apple
Watch delays on Pre-Order Day – How to Sell a Wearable using Apple Watch
Edition on Celebrities and Third Party Wristbands”, are not yet included in
these Statistics. Still, with as Celebrity endorsement and customization
options coming, analysts are expecting sales to be quite high.
But
if estimates such as those made by Piper Jaffry Gene Munster and analysts Cowen
and Co hold true, Fitbit and Xiaomi are in for a beating! Projections based on
their estimates would put the uber-expensive Apple Watch in first place, as
they estimated some 1 million pre-ordered Apple Watches as predicted in the
article “All
signs point to 1 million Apple Watch pre-orders, analysts say”, published
April 13, 2015 by Don Reisinger, CNET News.
Even
more interesting is that those estimates were for the weekend that the Apple
Watch went on sale. A recently released report on Tuesday June 2nd 2015
from investment firm Global Equities Research indicates that Apple may have receive some 7 million Apple Watch orders over that
weekend as reported in the article “Watch
is Apple's most successful product launch”, published june 2 2015 By Hope
King, CNN Money.
However,
due to component supply and shipping time constraints, they've only been able
to fulfill some 2.5 million of those orders on since Friday 24th of
April 2015. That’s STILL more than Garmin, Samsung and Jawbone combined for all
of the First Quarter of 2015.
Albeit
a financial rumour, if this is only half true, Apple would be set to trounce
Fitbit and Xiaomi in the Wearables category overall with potential sales
reaching as high as 10 million by Christmas 2015. It also indicates that I need
to step up by game and start doing review articles about Wearables as they’ll
be hot by Christmas 2015!
Can't
wait for the Next IDC Report on Wearables for the Second and Third Quarters of
2015, as if it's that easy for Xiaomi to break into the American Fitness
wearables market and Apple Watch official sales numbers are still unknown, then
anything is possible this Summer of 2015!
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