Apple has thus far declined to release sales numbers for its Apple Watch, but according to IDC, Cupertino is currently the No. 2 wearable vendor in the world.
During the second quarter of 2015, Apple shipped 3.6 million watches; Fitbit was No. 1 at 4.4 million.
"About two of every three smart wearables shipped this quarter was an Apple Watch," Jitesh Ubrani, senior research analyst for IDC mobile device trackers, said in a statement. "Apple has clearly garnered an impressive lead in this space and its dominance is expected to continue."
While Fitbit is still king of the wearables market, logging triple-digit year-over-year worldwide volume growth during the second quarter, the company only sells "basic" wearables (aka devices that don't run third-party apps), a category "expected to lose share over the next few years," Ubrani added. This is good news for Apple, which is now "poised to become the next market leader for all wearables."
Fitbit may be cursing Apple, but the iPhone maker's entrance to the market is good for the wearables ecosystem as a whole, pushing total volumes higher, according to Ramon Llamas, research manager for IDC's wearables team. Collectively, wearables vendors shipped 18.1 million units during the second quarter, up 223.2 percent from the 5.6 million units shipped a year earlier.
"Anytime Apple enters a new market, not only does it draw attention to itself, but to the market as a whole," Llamas said in a statement. "Fairly or not, Apple will become the stick against which other wearables are measured, and competing vendors need to stay current or ahead of Apple. Now that Apple is officially a part of the wearables market, everyone will be watching to see what other wearable devices it decides to launch, such as smart glasses or hearables."
Meanwhile, China's Xiaomi came in third during the second quarter, shipping 3.1 million wearables, followed by Garmin and Samsung, which rounded out the top five.