In the first quarter of 2017, Samsung Electronics took the second place in the world market of portable electronics, for the first time ahead of the American competitor Fitbit, reports Yonhap News referring to the data of Strategy Analytics. Among the factors that contributed to the success of Samsung, analysts called the popularity of smart watches Gear S3.

According to experts, in January-March, Samsung accounted for 12.8% of the global sales of portable electronics, while the contribution of Fitbit was 12.2%. Leadership in the market has kept Apple with an indicator of the presence of 53%.

Experts note that Fitbit lost to Samsung because of the fallen demand for its fitness trackers and belated development of the developing category of "smart" watches. Also, analysts added that the rise of the South Korean vendor in the worn-out electronics market was helped by the success of the Gear S3 smart watch.

Samsung Gear S3 watches are in high demand due to a wide range of functions: support for mobile payments and GPS, improved battery life and t.

In terms of supply, Apple's share was estimated at 16%, China's Xiaomi was the second with a 15.5%, and Fitbit closed the top three with a 12.3%.

It should be added that the Strategy Analytics report is at odds with the previously published data of the research company IDC. According to their calculations, in January-March the leader from the point of view of deliveries of portable electronics became the company Xiaomi, which with a minimum margin surpassed Apple. IDC believes that the Chinese vendor shipped 3.6 million devices, which corresponds to a 14.7%. Apple finished with about the same supply, but in percentage terms, its contribution was 0.1% less and amounted to 14.6%.

In the top 5 manufacturers of wearable gadgets by IDC version also included Fitbit, Samsung and Garmin. In the past quarter, the companies delivered 3, 1.4 and 1.1 million devices, which corresponded to a share of 12.

3%, 5.5% and 4.6%.

In general, the listed and other vendors released a total of 24.7 million portable devices versus 20.9 million units a year earlier.

Experts predict that in 2017, the global market for portable electronics in kind will grow to 125.5 million units, while in 2016 the figure was 104.3 million devices. In the next four years, the supply of such gadgets will increase by an average of 18.3% per year and reach 240.1 million units in 2021.