Wear Tech goes mainstream, BI Report is out.

From 14M devices in 2011 to 171M devices in 2016!

Impressive numbers, and very interesting to see that the study include eyewear in addition to smart watches and bracelets.

Why Apple market share loss doesn't signal anything positive for the competition.

For the past week, there has been of lot of alarming articles about Apple market share lately.

USA Today for example was explaining how Iphone's market share hit "the lowest level since the third quarter of 2009", echoed by TNW and The Economist.

Actually, this decline in market share is signaling something deeper about Apple and the future of this industry.



IDC Latest Figures

1. Although Apple is only getting 13% market share, they are making more than 50% of the profit for the entire smartphone industry (see the excellent Yahoo article about it). So no concerns for Apple shareholders and fans, Apple is not going away anytime soon!

2. The smartphone market is getting saturated, proof is that Samsung missed its quarter and will likely decrease their annual yearly forecast from 320M units to 300M units. The market is now saturated with handset manufacturers, which will eventually translate into a race to the bottom for price!

 

3. Apple core strategy has never been to get 70% of a specific market. If you look carefully at the past 10 years, the approach is always the same. Launch a new iconic device (iPod, iPhone), get the bulk of the profit and exit to the next niche while the device becomes more mainstream.

This is exactly what's happening with the smartphone market. Apple entered this market in 2007, there was only Blackberry, Symbian and Windows Mobile at that time.

6 years, later, they have taken most of the profit and imposed their vision to the marketplace.

 

4.So what's next now for Apple? Given the consumer's enthusiasm for wearable technology, the fact that Tim Cook sits on the board of Nike, anyone can expect some product in that space.

The iWatch will probably be the next big thing. Just like in the past, some competitors are already there, product is anticipated and even though...who can tell they won't be tempted to buy an Apple wacth :-)