The worldwide market for wearable devices grew 31.4 percent during the fourth quarter of 2018 to a new high of 59.3 million units, according to data from IDC. Growth in the market was driven by new wearables launched during the months leading up to the holiday season as well as new smartphone launches, as many were bundled with wearables from leading brands. Shipments for the entire year grew 27.5 percent to 172.2 million, led by the growing number of earbuds on the market
IDC estimates that ear-worn devices accounted for almost a quarter of the wearables market last year. That includes wireless headphones capable of enabling smart assistants, such as Apple's AirPods, Google's Pixel Buds and Bose's QC35II. The market researcher expects this to be a strong growth market in the coming year, supported by the growing number of smartphones without a headphone jack.
Smartwatches accounted for just over a third of the market in Q4 and grew 55.2 percent year-on-year. Over the full year, smartwatch shipments grew 54.3 percent. Around 30 percent of wearable shipments were wrist bands, driven by recent launches from Xiaomi, Huawei, and Fitbit.
Apple remained leader of the wearables market, with 16.2 million devices shipped in Q4 including 10.2 million Apple Watches. Apple's shipments grew 21.5 percent, and the company took 27.4 percent market share. Xiaomi was in second place with a 12.6 percent share, and Huawei came third with 9.6 percent, helped by its many offers of free wearable devices with its smartphones. Fitbit was close behind with a 9.4 percent share, and Samsung was in fifth place with 6.8 percent, after more than doubling its shipments to 4 million in Q4.
