Shipments of Wearable Devices Reach 336.5 Million Units in 2019

The worldwide market for wearable devices grew 82.3% in the fourth quarter of 2019, reaching a new high of 118.9 million devices shipped, according to IDC. For the entire year, vendors shipped a total of 336.5 million devices, resulting in an 89.0% increase from the 178.0 million units shipped in 2018.

The stunning growth was largely due to the proliferation of hearables, which captured 55.3% of the entire market. Other popular categories that also experienced growth during the quarter included watches (15.3%) and wrist bands (17.7%). Wrist-worn devices captured 43.8% of the total market, down from 68.6% last holiday season. Though the share for wrist-worn devices has declined, the category itself grew 16.3% over the same period.

Apple led the market with 43.4 million units shipped in 4Q19. However, as the company's products did well overall during the quarter, Apple Watch shipments declined 5.2% year over year as the company experienced supply shortages. Xiaomi ranked second shipping 12.8 million wearables of which 73.3% (9.4 million) were wristbands. The share of wristbands within Xiaomi's overall wearables portfolio has declined from 4Q18 when they accounted for 81.8% of shipments.

Samsung finished in third place. Driving volumes forward was its strategy to bundle wearables with its smartphones, which further developed its distribution with carriers. Despite political pressure, Huawei grew its wearable device shipments 63.4% overall. Fitbit rounded out the top five and saw its shipments rebound for the first time following two consecutive years of declining volume.

Earwear continued its strong march forward with 170.5 million units shipped worldwide for the year, resulting in an eye-popping 250.5% improvement from the 48.6 million units shipped in 2018. Wristbands finished 2019 with 69.4 million units shipped worldwide, up 37.4% from the 50.5 million units shipped in 2018. Watches reached 92.4 million units shipped in 2019, up 22.7% from the 75.3 million units shipped in 2018.