New Delhi : Shipments of wearable devices in India, including fitness-tracking bands, smartwatches and true-wireless earbuds, have sold 100 million devices in a calendar year for the first time. The milestone came amid a 46.2% year-on-year (YoY) shipment growth for the segment, with both smartwatches and earbuds seeing a significant increase in consumer interest over the year. Interestingly, the growth in demand for wearables comes as the overall consumer electronics industry in India and across the world grapples with a slump in demand due to inflation concerns and longer life cycles of earlier products.
According to a report published earlier today by market researcher International Data Corporation (IDC), wearable devices and smartwatches were the fastest growing product category among all consumer electronics categories in the country. According to the report, while 12.2 million smartwatches were shipped in 2021, it saw a growth of 151% to 30.7 million units in 2022. down to $42.5 (approx. 3,500) last year to $61.2 (approx. 4,600) in 2021.
To be sure, earbuds still account for the majority of device shipments in the wearable category, with true wireless earbuds accounting for nearly 70% of the market. Shipments of the latter grew 28% last year to 68.9 million units, up from 53.7 million in 2021.
According to analysts, the major reason the flexible wearables market is largely price-driven is despite a decline in consumer sentiment towards buying new electronics and gadgets. On January 6, Navkendar Singh, associate vice president, client devices, IDC India, told Mint that wearables were expected to be the only category in consumer electronics growing in shipments.
“Affordability is the key factor in the wearables space, and that’s why wearables are still seeing interest — consumer interest is rising as smartphone demand declines,” Singh said.
However, the market remained affected by supply challenges during the year, IDC said. Vikas Sharma, senior market analyst for client devices at IDC India, said supply challenges “are not expected to subside completely before the second half of 2023.”
“Local manufacturing is expected to scale up to over 80% by the time it exits 2023, with more players opting for local sourcing of parts and components,” he added.
In the smartwatch space, homegrown brand Noise captured the highest market share last year with 27%. However, fellow domestic brand Boat was the top shipping brand taking into account all three sub-segments last year with a 29.3% market share. Shore and China-headquartered BBK Electronics’ OnePlus came second and third behind the boat.
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