• by Chuck Martin , Staff Writer, August 15, 2019

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.