More people are buying wearables than ever before—and Apple is in the lead

Enlarge / The Apple Watch Series 6. (credit: Corey Gaskin)

The wearables category of consumer devices-which includes smartwatches, fitness trackers, and augmented reality glasses-shipped more than 100 million units in the first quarter for the first time, according to research firm IDC. Q2 2021 saw a 34.4 percent increase in sales over the same quarter in 2020.

To be clear: wearables have sold that many (and more) units in a quarter before, but never in the first quarter, which tends to be a slow period following a spree of holiday-related buying in Q4.

For the past several years, wearables like the Fitbit Versa have made up one of the fastest-growing categories of personal electronics, but the devices still lag far behind smartphones in terms of total units moved each quarter or year.

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