Wearable shipments grew by 35 per cent year-on-year (YoY) in Q1 2018, led by Apple and Xiaomi’s 3.8m and 3.7m units respectively.

According to Canalys, smartwatches accounted for 80 per cent of wearable band revenue in the quarter, up from 74 per cent the year prior. In terms of shipped units, smartwatches accounted for 43 per cent in Q1 2018.

The strength of Apple Watches and Mi Bands was followed by Fitbit, Garmin, and Huawei in shipments sold during the quarter. During the period, Garmin became the second largest smartwatch vendor behind Apple, shipping 1m smartwatches in the first quarter of the year.

“Operators welcome the additional revenue from device sales and the added subscription revenue for data on the Apple Watch, and the list of operators that sell the LTE Apple Watch worldwide is increasing each month,” said Jason Low, senior analyst at Canalys. “While the Apple ecosystem has a strong LTE watch offering, the lack of a similar product in the Android ecosystem is glaring. If Google decides to pursue the opportunity with a rumoured Pixel Watch, it would jump-start much needed competition in this space.”