Fitbit now controls 62% of fitness tracker market

Fitbit is king of the fitness tracker market. The company's products made up nearly 62 percent of fitness trackers sold in the first quarter of 2016, according to data from Slice Intelligence. The Apple Watch was the second-most popular fitness tracker, but Fitbit devices outsold the famous smart watch by 40 percent.

Slice's data comes from a survey of more than 4 million online shoppers. This is not a scientific sample, but it does give a sense of what is happening in the market. Fitbit has done well catering to businesses by getting its devices used in corporate health and wellness programs. Fitbit's enterprise customers still make up less than 10 percent of the company's revenues, but corporate buyers can have a big influence on a market. Regardless, Fitbit shipped 21 million devices in 2015.

The only China company to break into the top eight fitness tracker brands is Xiaomi, which had previously been one of the top three wearable makers in the world. The inexpensive Mi Band helped catapult it up the ranks, but that success was apparently short-lived. Competing on price can only get a company so far.

The good news for those specializing in health-monitoring wristbands is that the market for these devices remains strong. The Apple Watch, however, is a multifunction product that has slowly been gaining in popularity since its launch. The latest data from Slice shows that the device is now getting favor among women, who were originally a small minority of buyers because men are more inclined to be early adopters of new technology. The Apple Watch market is now about 40 percent female. Since health monitoring is one of the most popular uses of smart watches, this may be a good indication that the fitness tracking wearables space is currently a strong market to be in.