IDC: Chinese wearable market shrinks in Q1, Huawei overtakes Xiaomi for the lead

2021-11-24

While global wearable shipments grew during the January-March period, the latest report from IDC shows that the Chinese market is going in the other direction as it contracted by 11% compared to the same period last year. Combined shipments totaled 17.6 million in the first quarter of 2020 and Huawei was the big beneficiary as it managed to outpace Xiaomi to gain the top spot with 4.28 million shipments.

Company	Q1 2020 shipments (in millions)	Q1 2020 Market share	Q1 2019 shipments (in millions)	Q1 2019 Market share	Yearly Growth
Huawei	4.28	24.3%	3.60	18.1%	18.8%
Xiaomi	4.14	23.5%	4.17	21.0%	-0.6%
Apple	2.84	16.2%	2.47	12.4%	15.2%
LifeSense	0.78	4.5%	0.45	2.3%	72.9%
BBK Electronics	0.76	4.3%	1.45	7.3%	-47.1%
Total	17.61	100.0%	19.87	100.0%	-11.3%
Source: IDC

Xiaomi saw a 0.6% decrease in shipments and manged 4.14 million units while Apple came in third place with 2,84 million shipments. Local brand LifeSense experienced the largest growth with nearly 73% increase while BBK Electronics plummeted by 47% and shipped just 765 thousand units.

Looking at smartwatches in particular, Huawei was yet again the market leader with 1.04 million shipments and a 111.9% yearly growth. Apple slid into second place with 319 thousand units, while Xiaomi came in third with 128 thousand shipments. Garmin (110 thousand) and Huami (98 thousand) rounded out the top-five brands. As a whole, the smartwatch market saw an 8.4% increase compared to the previous year.

Company	Q1 2020 shipments (in millions)	Q1 2020 Market share	Q1 2019 shipments (in millions)	Q1 2019 Market share	Yearly Growth
Huawei	1.045	47.8%	0.493	24.5%	111.9%
Apple	0.319	14.6%	0.285	14.1%	11.9%
Xiaomi	0.128	5.9%	0.044	2.2%	189.5%
Garmin	0.110	5.0%	0.131	6.5%	-16.1%
Huami	0.098	4.5%	0.345	17.1%	-71.6%
Total	2.184	100.0%	2.015	100.0%	8.4%
Source: IDC