Apple’s reign on the wearables market continues, with the latest IDC figures suggesting that the company shipped more than 21 million units in the first quarter of 2020 – representing almost 30% of the total share of the market.
When you compare the latest figures to 2019, Apple’s shipments jumped 13.3 million units, representing a 59.9% year-over-year growth as Apple Watch and AirPods dominate.
According to IDC, Apple struggled to keep up with the demand for Apple Watches in the first quarter of this year due to supply chain difficulties, but the firm still managed to achieve stellar results when the Apple Watch was partnered with Beats and AirPods wearables.
IDC says that the COVID-19 pandemic undoubtedly helped the company shift more of its wearables stock, as people were working from home and needed to purchase AirPods and other wearables to increase their productivity.
Speaking of the news, Jitesh Ubrani, research manager for IDC Mobile Device Trackers said: “The hearables category was seemingly resilient to the market-suppressing forces caused by COVID-19.
“Consumers were clamoring for these sophisticated earpieces not only for the ability to playback audio but also to help them increase productivity, as many of them were forced to work from home and sought ways to reduce surrounding noise while staying connected to their smartphones and smart assistants.”
In second place comes Xiaomi, who managed to ship 10.1 million wearables in the first quarter of the year, followed by Fitbit, Huawei, and Samsung. Combined, wearables grew 29.7% year over year, with 72.6 million shipments in total.
At this year’s virtual WWDC, Apple is expected to announce its own AirPods Studio headphones – the first potential sign that Apple wants to move away from Beats branding.
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