Wearables market up 172 percent thanks to fitness trackers and the Apple Watch
Wearables are booming according to the latest reports from market research firm IDC. As of Q4 2015, the market has grown nearly 127 percent from 12.1 million units a year earlier to 27.4 million units. As for the full 2015 calendar year, sales have been even higher from 28.8 million units in 2014 to 78.1 million units to represent a sales jump of almost 172 percent.
Apparently, public fears about security, vulnerabilities, and surveillance due to smart devices have not put a dent on the rise of the wearables market. Suppliers are continuing to push new form factors, designs, and features to new products. Consumers are also opening up to the idea of clothing, footwear, and glasses incorporating such features according to IDC.
The top five most important wearables brands as of 2015 are Fitbit, Apple, Xiaomi, Garmin, and Samsung in that order. Xiaomi in particular showed tremendous interest in the sector with a YoY growth of 951.8 percent. The Chinese manufacturer had shipped just 1.1 million units in 2014 to over 12 million by the end of 2015. Samsung, Garmin, and Fitbit dropped in market share despite their greater shipments YoY.
In comparison, the notebook market was stagnant throughout all of 2015 and is not expected to show significant growth for the rest of 2016.
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