Fitbit still dominates the smartphone market, but another firm appears to be quickly catching up: Xiaomi.
One year ago, the Chinese electronics company didn't even have a wearable for sale. Fast forward to today, and Xiaomi is now the No. 2 wearable vendor and controls some 24.6 percent of the market, according to first quarter stats from IDC.
"Xiaomi started off the year by blasting through the one million unit [sales] mark with its MiBand for the first time, a significant feat made all the more impressive considering the device just started shipping during the second half of 2014," IDC said.
It's understandable if you didn't even know that Xiaomi made wearables. Like its smartphones, Xioami has primarily shipped the MiBand within its home country of China.
Meanwhile, Fitbit is still the "clear" leader of the market with a 34.2 percent share, IDC said. The company's success in the first quarter was driven by the release of three new devices — the Charge, Charge HR, and the Surge — along with continued demand for its older Flex, One, and Zip models. With all these devices, Fitbit has multiple segments of the market covered — from the "casual exerciser to committed athlete," the research firm said.
Rounding out the top five wearable vendors in Q1 were Garmin at No. 3 with 6.1 percent, followed by Samsung with 5.3 percent and Jawbone with 4.4 percent. (Jawbone is actually suing Fitbit at the moment for alleged theft of trade secrets, USA Today reported.)
Overall, the worldwide wearable market grew for an eighth consecutive quarter during the first three months of the year, IDC said. Vendors shipped 11.4 million wearables during that time, a 200 percent increase from the 3.8 million shipped a year earlier.
"What remains to be seen is how Apple's arrival will change the landscape," Ramon Llamas, IDC wearables research manager, said in a statement. "The Apple Watch will likely become the device that other wearables will be measured against, fairly or not. This will force the competition to up their game in order to stay on the leading edge of the market."