Huawei has overtaken Apple to become the world’s largest supplier of wearable electronics on the wrist.

New data from IDC states that the Chinese company Huawei, based on the results of the first three quarters of this year, managed to increase the volume of supplies of electronic devices worn on the wrist, that is, smart watches and fitness bracelets, by 44.3% year-on-year and take 16.9% world market. The company was in first place, while Apple was in second with 16.2%.

Image source: Huawei Technologies

By the way, the volume of supplies of Apple Watch smart watches, as the only type of device of the brand to be worn on the wrist, decreased by 12.8% in the three quarters of this year, and the share of the American company in the world market decreased from 18.4 to 16.2% . At the same time, Huawei took second place a year ago with 11.6% of the market, only slightly ahead of Xiaomi with its 11.5% of the market. The latter is now content with third place and 14.7% of the global market, but its shipment volumes increased by a respectable 26.5% to 20.5 million devices. Apple shipped 22.5 million devices over the three quarters of this year, and Huawei took the lead with 23.6 million devices worn on the wrist.

The fourth place is occupied by Samsung, which added 24.3% in supply volumes, but delivered only 11.5 million devices, and its share increased from 6.6 to 8.3%. Chinese BBK closes the top five with a market share of 5.6% and an increase in shipments by 25.9% to 7.8 million units. All other manufacturers of wrist-worn devices in the three quarters of this year reduced product shipments by 20.3% to 53.2 million units, their share fell from 47.5 to 38.2% compared to the same period last year.

Image source: IDC

If we divide devices into smart watches and bracelets, then 112.2 million units of the former were delivered in the three quarters of this year, which corresponds to a year-on-year decrease of 3.8%. In China, the domestic smartwatch market grew by 23.3% to 32.9 million products. Over the three quarters of this year, the global market for smart bracelets increased sales volumes by 12.7% to 26.8 million units; the Chinese market almost did not lag behind in terms of growth (12.6%), but was limited to sales of 12.9 million bracelets.

The success of Huawei products was facilitated by the release of new products in the third quarter in the form of the GT5 and GT5 Pro watches, as well as the second generation Watch D2 blood pressure monitor. Since the beginning of this year, Huawei has achieved stable growth in sales of wrist-worn devices in the Asia-Pacific region, Latin America, the Middle East and Africa, both through localization efforts and by strengthening its brand image in the global market.

Tellingly, the Apple Watch Series 10 family, after its debut in the third quarter, allowed the company to maintain its status as a supplier of the world’s most popular smartwatches, but competition is growing rapidly, and the lack of breakthrough innovations in this product category may force the American manufacturer to say goodbye to first place in the foreseeable future. future. By the way, in the domestic market of China, Apple products are only in fourth place with 7.3%, ahead only of Honor, and the top three are formed in descending order by Huawei (35.7%), Xiaomi (21%) and BBK (16.9%). ).