In Q1 2022, 41.7 million wearables were shipped globally; Apple, Huawei, and Xiaomi dominated.

Canalys, a leading worldwide technology market research agency, recently released a report on the global wearables industry in the first quarter of 2022. According to the survey, 41.7 million wearables were sold in Q1 2022 alone, with simple fitness band shipments accounting for just 9.7 million (23.3%) of the market, and basic watch and smartwatch shipments accounting for the remaining 32.0 million.

When compared to Q1 2021, overall shipments in the global wearables market declined by 4% YoY in Q1 2022. This situation is driven by the fast falling social relevance of fitness bands, although shipments did not decline any more as the basic watch and smartwatch market grew in popularity.

Apple, Huawei, and Xiaomi are the top three most popular wearables brands in the world right now. With a market share of 22.1 percent, Apple is in first place. In the first quarter of 2022, the firm delivered 9.2 million Apple Watches, which may be attributed to the brand selling not just its flagship Apple Watch Series 7 smartwatches, but also a more cheap Apple Watch SE wristwatch, giving consumers more alternatives and garnering greater market share. When comparing Q1 2021 and Q1 2022, the corporation saw a positive 21 percent increase in yearly revenues as a result of this.

With 11.1 percent of the wearables market share and 4.1 million overall shipments of its fitness bands and smartwatches, Huawei moves up from third position last year to second this year. The company's OpenHarmony ecosystem is the core attraction of its smartwatches, which keeps the brand constant in the wearables industry. Huawei smartwatches can link not only to your Huawei smartphone, but also to Huawei's IoT smart products, thanks to the OpenHarmony ecosystem. This applies to the company's own electric cars as well. To unlock your Huawei Car, for example, you may use your Huawei Watch as a digital car key.

Xiaomi, on the other hand, has slid from second to third place with 10.1 percent market share and 4.2 million shipments, owing to declining fitness band sales. As fitness bands continue to lose appeal because to their tiny displays, the company is discreetly shifting its attention to smartwatch development. However, Xiaomi smartwatches such as the Xiaomi Watch S1 are still the company's first tries at the idea, and the fitness band sales loss is expected to accelerate as a result of the company's shifting marketing focus.

Samsung and Fitbit are ranked fourth and fifth, respectively. Due to Samsung's partnership with Google's Wear OS for its Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 line of smartwatches, the company's market share in the wearables industry climbed 8.1 percent to 3.4 million shipments in Q1 2022. Fitbit, which was purchased by Google, had its sales plummet to 2.9 million in Q1 2022, accounting for 7% of the global wearables market.

When it comes to basic fitness bands, the market has been steadily declining since Q4 2020. The bands had a 37 percent drop in quarterly shipments from Q4 2021 to Q1 2022, representing the sixth consecutive quarterly drop since Q4 2020. After peaking at 27.9 million in Q4 2019, the fitness band market has dropped below 10 million for the first time in a long time, with 9.7 million sales.

The basic watch and smartwatch market, on the other hand, has grown by up to 15% year over year. According to the Canalys survey, there are several reasons why watches are becoming more popular.

Consumers prefer watches to bracelets. "They feel watches may better fulfil their health-tracking and digital lifestyle goals with larger screens, more capabilities, and longer battery life," said Sherry Jin, Canalys Research Analyst. "Basic watches are positioned as a cost-effective upgrade from basic bands, ideal for budget-conscious customers with rising expectations for what wearables can achieve."