It looks like the success of the Apple Watch is eating into fitness trackers, specifically Fitbit sales. The latest report from Canalys shows that fitness trackers sold less in the first three months of 2017 than the same period last year. Only 7% less overall but still, that’s not the direction Fitbit and Xiaomi want to be going in.
On the up, meanwhile, is smartwatches. And by smartwatches we mainly mean the Apple Watch. The category grew by 25% on last year’s Q1 figures to sell 6 million in total, 3.8 million of which were designed in Cupertino. That’s really impressive considering some tech pundits were ruling them out entirely just 6 months ago.
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The report confirms what we’ve been seeing from other analysts over the past few weeks. And OK, OK so 9 million fitness trackers were sold in total making them more popular than smartwatches as they have been for the past 12 months or so.
But the trend is clear: the sporty, waterproof, GPS-toting Series 2 has done the trick and is convincing a large chunk of people to spend more on the Apple smartwatch than they would on a Fitbit. (And much, much more than a Xiaomi Mi Band 2).
Part of the reason Fitbit sales are sluggish is that the world is waiting for the Fitbit smartwatch. Now said to be gearing up for a delayed launch this fall, Fitbit will be hoping it’s enough to make up for that 30% decline in its fitness band sales. As it happens, we’re still cautiously optimistic too.
SOURCE:https://www.wareable.com/apple-watch/the-apple-watch-is-stealing-fitness-tracker-sales-4469
