Canalys: Global wearable device shipments reached 20.5 million units in Q1 2018, up 35% year-on-year

Strong demand for health-centric devices drove wearable wristband shipments to grow 35% year-on-year to 20.5 million units in the first quarter of 2018. Smartwatches contributed 80% of revenue, up 74% year-on-year. In terms of shipments, smartwatches accounted for 43% of total shipments. Apple Watch stood out in the wearable space with 3.8 million units shipped, followed by Xiaomi with 3.7 million units shipped, of which Xiaomi wristbands accounted for 90%. Fitbit, Garmin and Huawei also ranked among the top five with their diverse wearable device portfolios.

After hitting a record high last quarter, Apple Watch shipments were able to stabilize this quarter, remaining the same as the same period last year. "The key to Apple's success lies in the popularity of its latest Apple Watch Series 3 and LTE watches," said Jason Low, senior analyst at Canalys. "Carriers welcome the additional revenue and data traffic brought by Apple Watch, and the number of carriers selling LTE-enabled Apple Watches is increasing every month around the world." Apple Watch accounts for 59% of the global cellular-enabled smartwatch market. "LTE watches are thriving in the Apple ecosystem, while similar products are lacking in the Android ecosystem. If Google decides to launch the long-rumored Pixel watch project, it will immediately intensify competition in the market."

Garmin is currently the second largest smartwatch supplier after Apple, shipping a total of 1 million units last quarter. "Garmin's transition from smartband to smartwatch business is very smooth, and it will apply its expertise in the GPS field to meet the needs of athletes and outdoor sports enthusiasts," said Vincent Thielke, a research analyst at Canalys. "It has improved many functions that meet the needs, such as Garmin payment for Forerunner and vívoactive series products, and offline music function of the latest Forerunner 645. It is good to increase customer stickiness by providing services, but Garmin must continue to improve and enhance these services based on real use cases. However, if Garmin is the only promoter of this ecosystem, it will bring huge cost pressure to itself."

As the pace of smartwatch replacement accelerates around the world, Fitbit is striving to encourage existing users to upgrade their products and gain new customers in this competition. Analyst Thielke said: "Fitbit is betting on its latest Versa smartwatch to expand its existing market through women's health tracking services." Canalys' latest valuation shows that smartwatches (including Blaze) account for 24% of Fitbit's smart bracelet shipments. "The cooperation between Fitbit and Google on cloud health API will help Fitbit enter the health system, which is an extremely beneficial step. But for Fitbit, it is more important to satisfy investors by selling more bracelets, but it may not be able to do this."