The Indian wearables market posted a record quarter with 11.8 million units shipped in Q3, realising a 165.1 percent year-over-year growth rate and marking the highest quarterly shipments to date, according to data from IDC. Strong demand for earwear devices and watches propelled this growth as both recorded their biggest quarter of shipments in India.
In the last few quarters, wearable devices have become more affordable with the average selling price of watches coming down to USD 111 in Q320 compared with USD 175 in Q319. This is enticing consumers to upgrade from wristbands to watches, the researchers believe. Similarly, the average price of true wireless stereo (TWS) dropped by 48.6 percent year-on-year in 3Q20 to USD 57. TWS now contributes to 39.7 percent of the overall earwear category, as close to 4 million TWS devices were shipped during the quarter, recording a four-digit annual growth of 1,156.3 percent in Q320.
Product category highlights
Wristbands grew 83.3 percent quarter-over-quarter (QoQ) in Q320 to almost 1 million after seeing a sequential decline in the first half of the year. However, shipments declined by 20.3 percent year-on-year as users started upgrading to watches. Xiaomi maintained its lead, accounting for more than half of the category shipments with a 52.4 percent share in the quarter. Realme stood second with a 14.6 percent share in the category.
Watches grew by 119.9 percent year-on-year in Q320 with 778,000 units shipped in the country, making it the biggest quarter since the launch of the category in India. Homegrown Indian lifestyle technology brand Noise led the segment with a 28.5 percent category share in 3Q20. Realme replaced Huami for the second position with a 24.2 percent share of the category.
Increased demand for wireless devices supported the earwear category to hit its all-time high shipments in the country, witnessing a 260.5 percent year-on-year growth in Q320 to reach 10.05 million. BoAt, with multiple launches during the quarter, led the category with a 32.4 percent share, followed by Samsung including devices from Samsung, Infinity, Harman Kardon, and JBL with a 15.0 percent share. BoAt led the overall TWS category with a 26.1 percent share, followed by Realme, which expanded the truly wireless portfolio and secured the second position with a 15.5 percent market share in the TWS category.
