Wrist-worn
wearable devices remain hot.
The wearable band market in North America reached $2 billion in the second quarter, according to new data from Canalys.
Thanks to the popularity of
smartwatches, shipments of the wearables increased 38% to 8 million units in the quarter.
The North American market leads. More than 60% of Apple’s 5 million global Watch shipments were
in North America.
Fitbit followed with shipments increasing 18%, primarily by sending more basic bands into the channel, though it failed to ship as many smartwatches as in the same quarter
last year, according to Canalys.
Samsung shipments grew a whopping 121%, but accounted for 11% market share, compared to Apple’s 38% and Fitbit’s 24%.
Garmin followed at 7%
market share and Fossil Group at 4%.
An earlier study by Strategy Analytics also found Apple with a strong leading position in wrist wearables. IDC has projected that overall shipments of
wearables will reach 223 million devices this year.