India’s wearables market clocks 93.8% on-year growth in Q3, domestic brands major gainers: Report
India’s wearables market grew a staggering 93.8% on year in Q2, data from International Data Corporation’s (IDC) India Monthly Wearable Device Tracker suggests. Companies shipped 23.8 million units of wearables, which include wristbands, earbuds, and smartwatches, the data shows.
“Despite the logistic challenges and increase in freight costs, vendors remained aggressive in their shipments and were able to manage the inventory for the upcoming month-long festival sales,” the IDC said in its report.
“Shipments in September surpassed 10 million, growing two-fold from the same month last year, resulting in a record quarter for wearable devices in India.”
Smartwatches remained the fastest-growing category, shipping 4.3 million units. Despite wristbands clocking a seventh straight quarter of annual decline, overall wristwear shipments crossed 5 million in the quarter.
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Truly Wireless devices hit 39.5% share of the earwear segment, which remains dominated by tethered and over-the-ear devices.
The report also highlighted the emergence of Indian brands such as BoAt, Noise, Ptron, Fire-Boltt, and Titan as top vendors alongside global peers Realme, OnePlus, Amazfit, Xiaomi, and Samsung.
Aggressive offers and digital marketing spend have helped Indian brands capture over two-thirds of the watch market. Noise, with a 26% market share, leads the wearables segment for the sixth consecutive quarter. BoAt’s 23.1% share lands the brand in second place. Fire-Boltt capture third position with its market share jumping to 15.3% from 5.5% in Q2.
IDC India Market Analyst (Client Devices) Anisha Dumbre said: “While seasonality made 3Q21 the biggest quarter for wearables, the influx of devices at the entry-level was the key growth factor.”
“Aggressive intent to maintain their lead helped them to further reduce the average selling price of watches to $73, putting immense pressure on a struggling wrist band category.”
Speaking on the foray of smartphone companies into the wearables segment, Dumbre said: “So far, these new-age brands have been able to limit the incumbent smartphone brands’ ability to make any dent in their growth and continue to dominate the hearables and wristwear categories.”
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The earwear segment, which includes neckbands, wireless over-the-ear headphones, and Truly Wireless devices, shipped 18.7 million units to clock a 77.9% on-year growth.
BoAt leads the segment with a market share of 48% after shipping 9 million units. Realme pipped OnePlus to second place, while Samsung settled at fourth. Ptron, which ended the quarter in fifth, saw shipments grow 81.9%.
In the earwear category, 7.4 million Truly Wireless devices were shipped — a 70.5% on-year growth. With brands continuing to target entry-level pricing, 86.4% of Truly Wireless devices are now listed below $50. BoAt led the category with a 37.3% share.
IDC India Research Manager (Client Devices) Jaipal Singh said: “The proliferation of new entrants in the mass market segment has increased competition, putting a lot of pressure on brands to differentiate in a market that is getting inundated with lookalike products.”
