Out of 4 wearables that Americans owned, at least 3 of them are fitness trackers, this is what Kantar World panel ComTech. had to say. Even though the market for wearable accessories is yet small in comparison to other markets, however around 12.2% of the American survey group of Kantar’s are owners of such devices.
Fitbit the maker of Charge HR and the Blaze as around 61.7% hold of the US base while 6.8% is held by Apple Watch. In fact the March ending period of 2016 reports stated that Fitbit stood first with its wearable sales percentage ending at 50%, while the second and their position respectively was taken by Apple and Garmin.
The power balance was more when the survey was conducted for 4 European markets‐ Italy, Great Britain, Germany and France. Even though the total percentage of wearable owners was only 6.6%, however the install base was controlled by Fitbit with an overall percent of 18.5. Apple followed at 14% and at 11.6% Samsung stood in the list.
It was suggested by Kantar that the top criteria of people when it came to choosing wearable’s included functionality, ease of use and the brand. The other concerns though not very high but still important included the design aspect. Apple is known to be one of the well known brands across the globe. In comparison to the Apple watch, there are many good fitness trackers that are available in the market which are not just cheaper in price however in comparison to the Apple Watch, in terms of interface and functions, they are simple. They help to check the time, heart rate and the number of steps the person takes. James Park the CEO of Fitbit in his recent interview stated that the wrong approach was taken by Apple by launching the Apple Watch in a computing platform.
