Apple Continues to Lead Wearables Market, Shipping 29.4 Million Units in Q2 2020

Apple maintained its lead in the global wearables market in the second quarter of 2020, according to research conducted by IDC.

apple watch airpods gift 2019

The market for wearable devices grew 14.1% overall during the second quarter of 2020, thanks to strong demand for "hearables," such as AirPods, and continued interest in health tracking metrics amid the global health crisis. The top vendors such as Apple, Huawei, and Xiaomi gained market share, while other vendors struggled to attract new customers. Fitbit notably declined by 29.2 percent.

Apple shipped 5.9 million more wearables in the second quarter of 2020 compared to the same time last year; an increase of 25.3 percent. The company's market share of wearables grew from 31.1 percent to 34.2 percent. Huawei followed at a distant second place, shipping 18.5 million units less than Apple.

Screenshot 2020 08 31 at 16

Hearables showed considerably stronger demand than smartwatches and fitness trackers, growing by 32.6 percent, and accounting for 60 percent of all wearables during the quarter. Apple led the sector again here, shipping 23.7 million AirPods and Beats devices in total, followed by Samsung and Xiaomi.

Apple is expected to launch new AirPods and Apple Watch Series 6 models in the immediate future. The upcoming products will likely help Apple maintain its dominant lead in the wearables market.

Tag: IDC

Popular Stories

iOS 26

6 New Things Your iPhone Can Do in iOS 26.1

Wednesday October 29, 2025 4:22 am PDT by
Apple is about to drop iOS 26.1, the first major point release since iOS 26 was rolled out in September, and there are at least six notable changes and improvements to look forward to. We've rounded them up below. Apple has already provided developers and public beta testers with the release candidate version of iOS 26.1, which means Apple will likely roll out the update to all compatible...
iOS 26

iOS 26.1 Coming Soon: New Features for Your iPhone and Release Date

Monday October 27, 2025 7:55 am PDT by
The upcoming iOS 26.1 update includes a handful of new features and changes for iPhones, including a toggle for changing the appearance of the Liquid Glass design, "slide to stop" for alarms in the Clock app, and more. Below, we outline key details about iOS 26.1. Release Date Given that Apple has yet to seed an iOS 26.1 Release Candidate, which is typically the final beta version, the...
iPhone 17 Pro Cosmic Orange

8 Reasons to Wait for Next Year's iPhone 18 Pro

Thursday October 30, 2025 4:42 am PDT by
Apple's iPhone development roadmap runs several years into the future and the company is continually working with suppliers on several successive iPhone models at the same time, which is why we often get rumored features months ahead of launch. The iPhone 18 series is no different, and we already have a good idea of what to expect for the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max. One thing worth...
ios 26 1 slide to stop

iOS 26.1 Brings Back 2007 Feature in New Way

Friday October 31, 2025 1:40 pm PDT by
The upcoming iOS 26.1 update includes a small but helpful change for iPhones, and it could prevent you from running late to something important. Specifically, when an alarm goes off in the Clock app, there is a new "slide to stop" control on the screen for turning off the alarm. On previous iOS 26 versions, there is simply a large "stop" button, which could be accidentally tapped. The new ...
M5 MacBook Pro

Waiting for New Macs? Apple Just Shared Bad News

Friday October 31, 2025 7:32 am PDT by
Apple has just given a strong indication that it will not be releasing any additional new Macs for the remainder of the year. Apple's CFO Kevan Parekh dropped the hint during the company's earnings call on Thursday:On Mac, keep in mind, we expect to face a very difficult compare against the M4 MacBook Pro, Mac mini, and iMac launches in the year-ago quarter.Parekh essentially gave a heads up ...
maxresdefault

Apple TV 4K Could Still Launch Before 2025 Ends: All the Rumored Features

Monday October 27, 2025 4:51 pm PDT by
Apple is designing an updated version of the Apple TV 4K, and rumors suggest that it could come out sometime in the next couple of months. We're not expecting a major overhaul with design changes, but even a simple chip upgrade will bring major improvements to Apple's set-top box. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. We've rounded up all the latest Apple TV rumors. ...
ipad mini 7 feature blue

OLED iPad Mini: Release Date, Pricing, and What to Expect

Wednesday October 29, 2025 7:13 am PDT by
Rumors are stoking excitement for the next-generation iPad mini that Apple is reportedly close to launching. So what should we expect from the successor to the iPad mini 7 that Apple released over a year ago? Read on to find out. Processor and Performance Apple is working on a next-generation version of the iPad mini (codename J510/J511) that features the A19 Pro chip, according to...
iOS 26

Apple Seeds iOS 26.1, iPadOS 26.1, and macOS Tahoe 26.1 Release Candidates

Tuesday October 28, 2025 1:07 pm PDT by
Apple today provided developers and public beta testers with the release candidate versions of upcoming iOS 26.1, iPadOS 26.1, macOS Tahoe 26.1, tvOS 26.1, watchOS 26.1, and visionOS 26.1 updates for testing purposes. The RCs betas come a week after Apple released the fourth betas. The new betas can be downloaded from the Settings app on a compatible device by going to General > Software...
apple tv hd

Apple Launched Its Big New Vision for TV 10 Years Ago Today

Thursday October 30, 2025 8:58 am PDT by
Apple launched the Apple TV HD, the Siri Remote, tvOS, and their accompanying App Store a decade ago today, marking a major overhaul of the device. The new vision for the Apple TV was unveiled on September 9, 2015 during Apple's "Hey Siri" event in San Francisco, where CEO Tim Cook introduced the device with the statement, "The future of TV is apps." The announcement represented a major...

Top Rated Comments

Ds6778 Avatar
68 months ago
There is literally no competition for the Watch, Apple could not release a new watch for 3-4 years and it would still be number one. I tried the Galaxy Watch and it was terrible, inaccurate health data, shoddy hear rate monitor, almost no dev support since its Tizen, Bixby is laughable even for simple tasks, build quality is meh (chunky plastic), and the performance is passable but not near as fluid as WatchOS.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
WiseAJ Avatar
68 months ago
Oh look a market where Apple actually is a monopoly leader. Can we start an antitrust lawsuit because they don't work with Androids?
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
TheYayAreaLiving ?️ Avatar
68 months ago
Apple: We are waiting for the new Apple Watch.

Ready to Pre-Order.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
alexhardaker Avatar
68 months ago

Silver stainless steel for me!
I was looking at the current options available & I can’t decide what to go for (assuming the options are the same for series 6). There’s too many options
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Ds6778 Avatar
68 months ago

Apple: We are waiting for the new Apple Watch.

Ready to Pre-Order.
Silver stainless steel for me!
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
m4mario Avatar
68 months ago
Where are the "Apple Watch will doom" predictors now?
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)