IDC: Fitness Wearable Devices Are Red-Hot, Others Not So Much

(RTTNews) - Shipments of wearable devices jumped 26.1 percent to 22.5 million units in the second quarter, according to the International Data Corporation.

Sales for basic wearables, or devices that do not support third party applications, improved 48.8 percent, while smart wearables, or devices that support third party applications, declined 27.2 percent year over year.

Fitbit Inc.'s (FIT) devices sales jumped 28.7 percent, while market share increased to 25.4 percent from 24.9 percent last year. Sales of Apple Inc.'s (AAPL) Apple Watch tumbled 56.7 percent, as Apple's share of the market declined to 7 percent from 20.3 percent last year.

Experts expect sales of Apple Watch to improve later this fall as most of the buyers have stalled their purchase in anticipation of a new Apple Watch and improved WatchOS.

"Fitness is the low-hanging fruit for wearables," said Jitesh Ubrani, senior research analyst for IDC Mobile Device Trackers. "However, the market is evolving and we're starting to see consumers adopt new functionality, such as communication and mobile payments, while enterprises warm to wearables' productivity potential."