Watch 3 puts Apple back at head of wearable pack as Fitbit falls

The Apple Watch 3 seems to have boosted wearable sales for the company, as it's pushed Apple back up to the top spot in the space between July and the end of September this year.

During Q3 2017, the company shipped 3.9 million versions of the Apple Watch including the Apple Watch 3, as well as older products.

That overtakes the other wearable manufacturers including Xiaomi and Fitbit, which shipped 3.6 million and 3.5 million units respectively.

Back in Q3 2016 Fitbit shipped 5.3 million units, which considering 2017's lower figures it'll be a big drop for the company in the space of a year. Xiaomi, however, shipped a similar amount to its 2017 figures with 3.8 million units shipped in Q3 2016.

Xiaomi offers cheap fitness trackers so manages to offer up high numbers, while Fitbit is still a big household name that's pushing ahead with new products including the Fitbit Ionic.

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All of this data comes from Canalys estimates, so it's only based on shipments and not sales. Apple never shares exact sales details for any of its products though, so this is likely the best sign we'll have of how well the Apple Watch 3 has done.

The estimates predict that Apple shipped 800,000 units of the Apple Watch 3 while the other 3.1 million shipments would be for either the Apple Watch or the Apple Watch 2 (which is no longer on sale but was for a portion of Q3).

Huawei and Samsung take fourth and fifth place in the list of biggest shipments, but that doesn't include the latest products, such as the Samsung Gear Sport, which has only just been put on sale.