2016 was a fantastic year for Apple Watch, according to the latest info from the International Data Corporation that shows Apple’s wearable just experience its best quarter ever.
In its latest report, IDC analysts say Apple Watch is finally closing the gap on Fitbit, which just experienced its largest declines ever in the fourth quarter.
“Apple Watch Series 1 and Series 2 proved to be a magnificent success for the company as it was the company’s best quarter ever in the wearables market…Apple is one of the few companies that has been able to quickly refocus its watch to gain traction in the consumer market and has also been leading the charge on introducing the smartwatch category to the commercial segment.”
Apple Watch sales are booming
IDC notes that the addition of GPS and the lower entry price of the Apple Watch Series 1 really helped sales. Revamping the interface to focus more on health also help Apple reach more customers.
Apple Watch’s overall marketshare actually dropped slightly in Q4 2016 to 13.6%. In the year-ago-quarter Apple captured 14.1% of the market.
Despite the dip in marketshare, Apple actually sold more units last quarter with a total of 4.6 million Apple Watches sold compared to 4.1 million last year. Fitbit only managed to sell 6.5 million fitness trackers last quarter after selling 8.4 million in Q4 2016.
Buster Hein is a freelance writer who lives in Phoenix, Arizona. Twitter: @bst3r.
One response to “Apple Watch surges to ‘best quarter ever’ as Fitbit sales decline”
Nike wisely folded its wearables line when Apple entered the business, probably realizing that they don’t have or want to expend the R&D resources (mainly money) required to go head to head with Apple.
Fitbit may have been able to keep up for a while with their nice little devices that counted your steps, tracked you with GPS, and maybe even monitored your pulse rate, but once Apple R&D starts coming out with really advanced features and functions, like for example a purpose-built SoC, the gap between Fitbit and Apple will just keep getting wider and wider. Fitbit will probably hang around in the periphery a little while like those Sansa players in the iPod era but I don’t think it has much of a future in the line of business they’re currently in.