In wearable technology news, Beijing-based electronics company Xiaomi is now the top wearable. The Chinese tech giant finished off the second quarter of 2017 with the highest market share of any individual wearables brand.
According to Digital Trends, Xiaomi reportedly shipped 3.7 million wearables in the second quarter, beating out both Fitbit at 3.4 million and Apple at 2.8 million. At the same time last year, Fitbit led the industry with 5.7 million shipments in the period, while Xiaomi had just three million.
These new numbers mean Xiaomi currently leads the market with 17 percent, while Fitbit stands at just under 16 percent and Apple at 13 percent. The industry has grown 8 percent year-over-year, according to reports from market research and strategy firm Strategy Analytics.
Xiaomi owes its newfound success to its inexpensive Mi Band fitness trackers. The Mi Band 2, for example, can be purchased for less than $25 and still offers a better feature set than many more expensive devices. Although they’re not officially sold directly from the company in many parts of the world, Mi Bands are extremely popular in China and can be easily imported.
Apple’s high-end smartwatch has displayed healthy growth of its own, with one million more Apple Watches shipped in the second quarter of this year compared to last and proving that consumers are still willing to pay top dollar for premium wearables.
In the meantime, Fitbit has fallen behind its competitors in offering a viable mainstream smartwatch. While the device was supposed to launch in the spring, long delays have pushed its release to the 2017 holiday season. As a result, Fitbit has lost a sizable chunk of the market and was forced to cut its workforce by six percent earlier in the year.
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