Apple Loses Leadership Position In Wearable Band Market To This Chinese Company

The competitive dynamics in the global wearable band market has changed in the second quarter, according to a new report from Canalys.

Apple Toppled: China's Xiaomi Corp XIACF overtook Apple Inc AAPL to become the top wearable band vendor in the second quarter, thanks to the launch of the Mi Smart Band 6, Canalys said.

The company shipped 8 million bands in the second quarter, up 2.6% year-over-year. This gave the company 19.6% of the market.

The strong performance comes despite India, one of Xiaomi's strongest markets, was not on the initial global launch list.

"Xiaomi made a wise move to hasten the release of the Mi Band 6, which is a more compelling device than its predecessor," said Canalys analyst Cynthia Chen.

In comparison, Apple shipped 7.9 million wearable bands and took 19.3% of the overall market.

Huawei and Alphabet Inc. GOOGGOOGL-owned Fitbit took the third and fourth position, respectively, with 7.3% and 6.1% market share.

Global wearable band shipments rose 5.6% year-over-year to 40.9 million units, the report said.

A Canalys report released in mid-July showed Xiaomi overtook Apple in smartphone shipments in the quarter to take the second spot.

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Apple Maintains Sizeable Lead In Wristwatch Market: Apple continued to lead the global wristwatch market, with a commanding 31.1% market share in the second quarter, Canalys said.

Apple shipped 7.9 million wristwatches, the report added.

Huawei was a distant second with a 9% market share and Garmin followed with a 7.6% share.

Recent vendor movements included Samsung joining forces with Google to develop Wear OS 3 and the launch of Samsung's Galaxy Watch4 series with new biosensors and a 5nm chipset. Among the other challengers are Oppo and Huami (Zepp), which are developing in-house components and solutions for their watches, Canalys said.

At last check Tuesday afternoon, Apple shares were up 1.255% at $156.69.

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Photo: Courtesy of Apple