According to mediapost.com, shipments of “wrist-worn wearables” — as opposed to wrist-worn unwearables — are up 29 percent this year; A growth curve some experts see continuing for the next seven years. Fighting it out for the biggest slice of this ever-expanding international pie: the Mi Band and the Apple Watch . . .
Pundits consider Apple the 500-pound gorilla in the wearables room. With the new Apple Watch 5 selling like the old Apple Watch (which is still selling), Cupertino isn’t too worried about losing market share to Google Wear OS products like Fossil and Fitbit.
But there’s an even bigger, badder smartwatch siminian out there: the aforementioned Xiaomi corp’s Mi band. mediapost.com crunches the numbers in the epic Mi Band vs. Apple Watch grudge match:
The market is dominated by five companies (Xiaomi, Apple, Huawei, Fitbit and Samsung), which account for 66% of the entire market.
Xiaomi, the Chinese company that focuses almost exclusively on low-cost wristbands, leads the market with 17% share, shipping 6 million units in the quarter.
Closely behind is Apple, with 15% market share for the quarter, shipping 5 million devices. While Apple lags a bit in devices shipped, the average selling price of an Apple Watch was $448 during the quarter, according to IDC.
Chinese entrepreneur Lei Jun founded Xiaomi in 2010. Their website reveals that Mr. Jun made his fortune bellieving that “high-quality technology doesn’t need to cost a fortune.”
Well of course it doesn’t. Not when you manufacture your hi-tech good in mainland China. where factory workers are paid less than $2.31 an hour. If that. A production cost that also applies to Apple Watches, BTW.
Xiaomi’s corporate philosophy is all sunshine and rainbows, but it may not be shared by Apple — especially if Xiaomi expands its American presence. And it’s definitely not shared by makers of traditional watches as they watch dark clouds come rolling in.