Hot on the heels of surpassing Apple's smartphone sales, Xiaomi has now become the number one seller of wearables on the planet, without exception. According to data from market analysts Canalys, Xiaomi propelled Apple to second place in the second quarter of this year, both in terms of units shipped and market share. It was a pretty tight thing. Xiaomi shipped around 8 million portable devices to Apple's 9 million, and their market shares were 3% and 1%. But we imagine champagne corks are still popping up at the Beijing-based company, because beating Apple at anything is critical. This is especially true since the closest competition is significantly behind, with Huawei in third with XNUMX% market share, Fitbit in fourth with XNUMX% and Samsung in fifth with XNUMX%.
Not the whole story
Apple, however, probably won't bother too much. Because while that top number may make Xiaomi feel like a "winner", it doesn't really compare to the likes. Apple's sales and market share are driven solely by the Apple Watch, while Xiaomi has a range of different fitness trackers, smartbands and smartwatches, most of which don't compete in the slightest with Apple. Manzana. AppleWatch. Xiaomi also owns Redmi and Huami, which spawn the Amazfit and Zepp sub-brands and thus the two further inflate their total. And finally, while Xiaomi offers the most laptops overall, it only ranks fifth in global wristwatch sales, with Apple by far the undisputed leader here. In truth, Apple completely dominates the global wristwatch market now, with a healthy 2% share, well ahead of Huawei at XNUMX%, Garmin at XNUMX%, Samsung at XNUMX% and Xiaomi with a modest XNUMX%.
How was Xiaomi's success?
That doesn't completely take away from Xiaomi's success, naturally. So how did it go? Well, part of it was a case of 'high tide lifts each and every ship'. The overall wearable device market grew 6% year-on-year over this period, with around XNUMX million wearable devices shipped overall. But it's also a testament to the fact that Xiaomi wearables are some of the best cheap activity trackers.
The Xiaomi Mi Smart Band XNUMX has some incredible specs for a budget fitness tracker (Image credit: Xiaomi/Future) Indeed, as we stated in our recent Xiaomi Mi Smart Band XNUMX review, “If you are looking for a fitness tracker affordable, it's worth adding to your shortlist. It has some awesome features you'd expect to find on a much more expensive device, like all-day stress tracking and a pulse oximeter, and its screen is extraordinarily bright, clean, and responsive. It's by no means perfect - we found that its connected GPS didn't work really well with training and the outfit wasn't always particularly comfortable. More generally, it strikes a good balance between performance and affordability. And it seems that the world public is satisfied. Due to the fact that even if it hasn't even been launched in India yet, the Mi Smart Band XNUMX has contributed a lot to Xiaomi's QXNUMX results. And with the final launch of the device in India on the XNUMXth of August, things are looking very promising for Xiaomi's wearable apparel sales in the coming quarter.
The Xiaomi Mi Smart Band 2 continues to attract buyers to a budget (Image credit: Michael Sawh) Xiaomi also continues to attract cash-strapped buyers with the predecessor to the Mi Smart XNUMX, the Mi Smart Band XNUMX. Although this even cheaper model lacks built-in GPS, it offers XNUMX/XNUMX activity tracking, continuous heart rate. monitoring, eleven different sport modes. and the ability to record outdoor sessions by connecting to your phone's GPS. At the opposite end of the cost scale, the imminent arrival of the Apple Watch XNUMX is likely to shake up the market again, not to mention the long-awaited launch of the cheaper Apple Watch SEXNUMX. So, even if the "number one in wearables" status isn't as essential as you might think, Apple could win it back soon anyway...