Samsung beats Fitbit for second place in wearable market

Samsung has another reason to celebrate. For the first time ever, the tech giant overtook Fitbit to become the second largest player in the wearable market. According to Strategy Analytics, the company grabbed 12.8 percent of the market in the first quarter of the year, while Fitbit’s market share was 12.2 percent.

As expected, Apple retained the number one spot. The company’s market share in Q1 was 53 percent, far ahead of Samsung and the rest of its competition.

Samsung was able to move up to second place thanks to the high demand for its devices, mainly the Gear S3. The smartwatch was announced back at IFA 2016 in September and went on sale in the US in November.

As a refresher, Samsung’s smartwatch is available in two versions – Classic and Frontier — both of which feature a 1.3-inch Super AMOLED fully circular display along with a rotating bezel, and sport an IP68 rating for dust and water resistance. They run Samsung’s Tizen OS and come equipped with GPS and an optical heart-rate monitor.

The two smartwatches look a bit different from one another with the Classic being the more elegant one, while the Frontier has a more rugged design. To learn more, check out our review of the Samsung Gear S3.