On Friday Patently Apple posted a report titled "Apple Watch still the Runaway Smartwatch in the World in Q2 2018 with Series 1 still the Preferred Model." Counterpoint's set of data stated that Apple had 41% Share for Q2 2018. Today IDC confirms that Apple Watch was the hands down smartwatch winner for Q2 with 38% that presents a slight statiscal variance from Counterpoint's finding.

IDC's report notes that "Apple maintained its position atop the wearables market with market-beating growth and continued demand for its LTE-enabled Watch. This makes it a welcome addition to many telco channels worldwide. Now that the company has unveiled watchOS 5, it has also begun to chart out potential replacement cycles as the latest version of Apple's smartwatch platform will be compatible only with Series 1 and later.

In Q2 Fitbit fell sharply. IDC notes that "Fitbit's decline continued as the company largely relied on sales of basic wristbands in the past and was not able to maintain pace during the second quarter. Fitbit is also one of the few OEMs that continues to actively target the commercial market and remains a market leader in this space.

Overall, growth continued in the global wearables market during the second quarter of 2018 (2Q18) as shipment volume reached 27.9 million units, up 5.5% from the previous year according to data from the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Wearable Device Tracker. The market experienced similar gains in dollar value, growing 8.3% year-over-year to $4.8 billion in 2Q18 fueled by the continued popularity of smartwatches with their high price tags.

The report further noted that "Basic wearables have been in decline over the past several quarters." In most markets consumers are finding that cheap wearables aren't delivering as hoped for which is great news for Apple who continues to focus on pushing new features into every Apple Watch upgrade. Apple Watch Series 4 promises a slightly thinner design and superior interface at minimum. New Apple Watches are due on September 12th which could boost Q3 stats if they ship early enough.

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