This Chinese kids watch sold more than Samsung smartwatches this summer

XTC's Y01 - a budget watch for kids - was the 5th best-selling wearable last quarter
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A budget GPS phone watch for kids sold more in China than all of Samsung's wearables worldwide between July and September this year. That's according to IDC's latest Worldwide Quarterly Wearable Device Tracker report.

BBK, the Chinese electronics giant which makes Oppo and OnePlus phones, sold an estimated 700,000 units of the XTC Y01, a smartwatch for kids that costs ¥796.00 (about ).

Read this: The best kids trackers

That makes BBK the 5th biggest seller of wearable tech in the world for Q3 of 2015, following in the footsteps of Xiaomi at No.3 for its huge 3.7 million sales of the Mi Band tracker.

In an otherwise unsurprising set of estimated sales figures, only Fitbit (4.7 million), Apple (3.9 million) and Garmin (0.9 million) sold more wearables than BBK. Samsung's entire smartwatch line-up trailed the Y01 by 100,000 watches.

OK, OK, you got us. The much anticipated Samsung Gear S2 only went on sale on 2 October in the US and 12 November in the UK i.e. after the quarter in question. You sleuths, you. But over the summer Samsung was still flogging Gear 2s, Gear Lives and Gear Fits so it's not like it was doing nothing.

Horror show: We test a bunch of random cheap Chinese smartwatches

The Y01's success is just further proof that China could be just as important to the likes of Apple and Fitbit as the US and Europe. Xiaomi's fitness tracker is dirt cheap but the more premium Ticwatch also enjoyed success and the Shine 2 had a killer 250,000 units first day of sales in China recently.

In case you're wondering, the Y01 comes in a bunch of bright colours and handles calls, with its own nano SIM card, as well as allows parents to locate their children via the wearable's GPS. It's iPhone and Android compatible and other features (taken from translated Amazon China and JD.com) include micro chat, reminders, family group chat and parental controls like disabling chat in class.

Unlike the Mi Band, it's less likely BBK will enjoy big sales globally as there's quite a few similar kids' wearables already on sale.

This Chinese kids watch sold more than Samsung smartwatches this summer


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Sophie was Wareable's associate editor. She joined the team from Stuff magazine where she was an in-house reviewer. For three and a half years, she tested every smartphone, tablet, and robot vacuum that mattered. 

A fan of thoughtful design, innovative apps, and that Spike Jonze film, she is currently wondering how many fitness tracker reviews it will take to get her fit. Current bet: 19.

Sophie has also written for a host of sites, including Metro, the Evening Standard, the Times, the Telegraph, Little White Lies, the Press Association and the Debrief.

She now works for Wired.


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