Canalys predicts a healthy shipment growth for wearable bands, TWS in 2021

Research firm Canalys on Monday released its global smart accessories forecast for 2021. According to the research firm, shipments of smartphone accessories -- wearable bands and TWS devices -- will go past 200 million units and 350 million units respectively in 2021.

Canalys pointed out that consumers spent on smart wearable and smart hearable accessories even as the Covid-19 pandemic deepened globally. The report suggests that wearable bands and TWS earbud categories did better than smartphones. It predicts shipments of such devices will register a healthy rate of 32% this year. According to Canalys, smart accessory growth in the Asia-Pacific and European regions will remain strong. It will also be the same for regions such as Greater China and North America.

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“The pandemic will prolong replacement cycles for smartphones. However, the 'lipstick effect' will drive consumers to spend on smaller, less costly items during an economic downturn to meet their buying pleasures," said Canalys Research Analyst Cynthia Chen.

According to the report, TWS earbuds are expected to grow 39% in 2021 to reach over 350 million units, registering a stronger growth than wearable bands, which are expected to grow at 12% in the same year.

Chen also cautioned vendors should be on alert as the pandemic could disrupt their plans of expanding IoT products.

"While users are expected to tighten their spending, they continue to demand devices to do even more and provide an excellent user experience. The challenge here is to bring incremental upgrades to ever more affordable devices while ensuring seamless integration that must translate to valuable features to help users in areas such as wellness and smartphone entertainment," added Chen.