Chinese tech giants are making substantial gains, challenging the dominance of established players like Apple Inc. AAPL in the global wrist-worn device market.
What Happened: According to an IDC report released on Wednesday, the global wrist-worn device market, including smartwatches and wristbands, saw shipments reach 139 million units in the first three quarters of 2024.
Despite a 1% decline due to market saturation in key regions like the U.S. and India, China emerged as a leader with 45.8 million units shipped, marking a 20.1% year-on-year increase.
Huawei Technologies led the global market with 23.6 million units shipped, capturing a 16.9% market share. The brand’s GT5 series and Watch D2 were particularly popular.
Apple followed with 22.5 million shipments, holding a 16.2% market share. The tech giant experienced a 12.8% decline from the last year due to intense competition.
See Also: Shiba Inu Burn Rate Surges 3,609% As Dogecoin Whales Move 5.8 Billion DOGE: What Is Going On?
Xiaomi Corp. XIACF ranked third with 20.5 million shipments and a 14.7% market share.
Samsung and the BBK Group, the parent company of brands like Oppo, Vivo, OnePlus, and Realme, followed with 11.5 million and 7.8 million units, respectively.
Looking forward, IDC anticipates a 3.2% year-on-year growth in the Chinese market, with 62.5 million shipments expected in 2025, driven by diversified sales channels and improved health sensor accuracy.
Subscribe to the Benzinga Tech Trends newsletter to get all the latest tech developments delivered to your inbox.
Why It Matters: Apple’s troubles with its Chinese counterparts are not limited to just wrist-worn devices. Earlier this year in July it was reported that Apple’s position in the Chinese market dropped from third to sixth place in the second quarter of 2024.
Previously it was also reported that China is making intense efforts toward achieving technological self-reliance as a direct reaction to U.S. limitations on semiconductor exports to the country.
The country is also making waves in the field of AI. Earlier this month, Clem Delangue, co-founder and CEO of Hugging Face, predicted that in 2025, China will take the lead in the AI race, because of open-source AI development.
Check out more of Benzinga’s Consumer Tech coverage by following this link.
Read Next:
Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of Benzinga Neuro and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.
Photo courtesy: Shutterstock
Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs