The Indian market for smartwatches and other wearables is growing in the triple digits

20. May 2021

Analysts at IDC, a market intelligence provider, recently released these figures in a report. For example, the market for smartwatches, wristbands, earphones and other wearable electronics, known as wearables, grew 144.3 percent year-over-year. IDC said 36.4 million devices were shipped. India was the only country in the top 20 with triple-digit growth and remains the world’s third-largest market, the report said. IDC estimates that growth was driven by the rising popularity of earbuds and consumers’ shift from traditional watches to smartwatches and wristbands. Both product segments recorded their highest shipments to date in 2020.

 

 

Jaipal Singh, IDC India associate research manager (client devices), said last year saw a major shift from wired audio devices to wireless variants. As a result, he expects the market to move toward high-end or feature-rich devices this year. In the case of smartwatches, prices have now fallen to the point where this is no longer a barrier to purchase, Singh added. The design of the new watches is also more appealing to most customers than conventional watches, and vendors will shift their offerings and portfolio accordingly in the coming months, Singh said.

The earbud product category has grown more than threefold in the past year, with 30.4 million units sold. In addition to affordable prices, increased usage outside of entertainment purposes such as video conferencing or distance learning also contributed to the growth. Particularly in demand for earphones were so-called TWS (true wireless stereo) devices, which connect to the music source via Bluetooth and the left and right audio channels produce separate, high-fidelity stereo sound on the earphones without delay. Of all wearables, audio accounted for 86.3 percent in 2020. Indian manufacturer Boat is the clear market leader with more than two-thirds of all headphones and earbuds shipped. Samsung, including its JBL, Harman Kardon and Infinity sub-brands, is in second place and had 14.5 percent market share last year.

In smartwatches, the number of units shipped exceeded 1 million for the first time in the third quarter of 2020. This compares to only 300,000 devices shipped in the same quarter last year. The most popular models of smartwatches in India were the Noise Colorfit pro-2, Realme watch, Apple watch 6 and Amazfit watches. The growing popularity of smartwatches could have an impact on wristband sales, according to IDC analysts. Their shipments fell 34.3 percent year-on-year to 3.3 million devices after peaking in 2019.

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