IDC Latest Global Wearable Device Report: Smart Shoe Clothing Fever Rising, Healthy Fitness Is Still The Core Demand.

According to the latest report of international data company IDC (hereinafter referred to as "IDC"): the first quarter of 2018, global wearable product shipments grew by 1.2% over the same period last year, and the growth rate slowed sharply compared to the same period last year.

The main reason is that consumers are turning to smarter and more diversified products.

Specifically, the slowdown is mainly affected by the 9.2% of shipments of basic wearable goods, while the price of smart wearable goods in the same period increased by 28.4% over the same period last year.

This reflects consumers' interest in more sophisticated technology products.

In the first quarter, watches and bracelets accounted for 95% of the shipments of wearable goods, and the popularity of other categories of goods also increased rapidly: the clothing and footwear shipments of sensors increased by 58.6% over the same period last year.

Most of the products in this category are walking shoes with step function, but the clothing of all kinds of sensors is also increasing. For example, T-shirts and shorts are mainly used to track fitness data.

Health related functions remain the core of wearable products, and technology advantages enable them to integrate more customized and compact devices on their products.

Fitbit, the US wearable health equipment provider, announced on Monday that its smart health watch Versas shipped 1 million in the first quarter, while another female health tracking device added 1 million 800 thousand female users within two weeks of its release.

Although fitness and health are still the main application areas of wearable products, other applications are also being explored.

IDC wearable team research director, Ramon T. Llamas, said that although health and fitness are currently the main application areas of wearable devices, hearing aids, audio modification, language plation, personal seasonal alarm and children's family related watches are new directions for wearable devices in the future.

Another trend is the rise in the popularity of wearable audio devices.

Wearable audio intelligent devices can be used not only for users with hearing impairment to improve their audio effects, but also technology giants such as Google and apple have recently abandoned traditional headphone jack on their flagship mobile products, and promoted the accelerated development of wireless headphones.

This kind of audio intelligent device can not only play music, answer phones, plate foreign languages, provide guidance, or quickly connect voice assistant such as Siri and Google Assistant.

Consumers' interest in the "bionic ear" has attracted large companies such as Google, Sony, Bose and small wearable audio equipment companies such as Nuheara and Bragi.

Jitesh Ubrani Ubrani, senior research analyst at IDC mobile tracking division, said that more sensor equipment, years of basic data accumulation and improved algorithms help the backbone of the wearable industry such as the US technology giant apple (Apple) to monitor people's disease and other sub-health phenomena in real time.

At the same time, about 1/3 of wearable devices have achieved cellular data connectivity in the current quarter, and wearable devices will usher in a new application case.

Compared with the first quarter data released in the fourth quarter of 2017, IDC released in March, there are no major changes in the ranking of the leading enterprises in the wearable device industry.

Above: shipments, market share and growth of the top five wearable device manufacturers in the first quarter of 2018

Apple Corp established the position of industry leader in the fourth quarter of 2017, ranking first in the first quarter of 2018 and 16.1% in the first quarter of last year, with a market share of 14.3% in the same period last year.

In the first quarter, apple smart watch Apple Watch shipments increased by 13.5% compared to the same period last year, mainly due to the development of new smart phone and smart phone in the new market.

Apple Corp held the annual Apple Developer Conference Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) on Monday.

China electronic consumer company millet company ranked third in the fourth quarter of 2017, jumped to second in the current quarter, and the market share was 14.8%.

But in the top five of wearable equipment companies, the average selling price of their products is the lowest, so their market share is only 1.8%.

San Francisco wearable health equipment supplier Fitbit dropped to third in the current quarter, and its market share dropped 28.1% compared to the same period, only 8.7% now.

This quarter, the company's innovative products such as Versa smart watches and women's health tracking equipment have received good feedback.

Fitbit is consulting with government agencies and health organizations to try to establish its position as a leader in wearable devices in the health field.

China HUAWEI

The share is 5.2%, ranking fourth, but the market is still mainly distributed in Asia.

The US wearable device supplier Garmin (Jia Ming) has a 5% market share, ranking fifth.

Above: shipments of the world's top five wearable device manufacturers in the first quarter of 2017 to the first quarter of 2018

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