Wearable segment recorded a 28.4% growth in 2020: IDC | Wearables News

Wearable segment recorded a 28.4% growth in 2020: IDC

India’s boAt made it to the top with a market share of 5.4% in the fourth quarter of 2020.

By: HT TECH
| Updated on: Aug 21 2022, 15:47 IST
Apple led the market once again with 36.2% share of 4Q20 shipments.
Apple led the market once again with 36.2% share of 4Q20 shipments. (Jhinuk Sen/HT Tech)
Apple led the market once again with 36.2% share of 4Q20 shipments.
Apple led the market once again with 36.2% share of 4Q20 shipments. (Jhinuk Sen/HT Tech)

Global shipments of wearable devices hit 153.5 million in the fourth quarter of 2020, according to new data from the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Wearable Device Tracker.

The segment recorded a 27.2% year-over-year growth, while shipments for the full year posted a 28.4% growth to hit 444.7 million units. The report notes that the quarter was largely driven by the arrival of new devices and lower prices. It further noted that 2020 saw a surge in consumer spending for electronics as “disposable income was reallocated from leisure activities during the pandemic.”

In the quarter, Apple led the market once more. The company had a 36.2% market share in the said quarters. IDC noted that its Watch shipments increased by 45.6%. Hearable shipments also surged during the quarter though year-over-year growth dipped by 22%. The last two quarters had recorded 28% and 29%, respectively.

Top 5 Wearable Device Companies by Shipment Volume, Market Share, and Year-Over-Year Growth, Q4 2020 (shipments in millions)
Top 5 Wearable Device Companies by Shipment Volume, Market Share, and Year-Over-Year Growth, Q4 2020 (shipments in millions) (IDC Worldwide Quarterly Wearable Device Tracker, March 2021)
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Top 5 Wearable Device Companies by Shipment Volume, Market Share, and Year-Over-Year Growth, Q4 2020 (shipments in millions) (IDC Worldwide Quarterly Wearable Device Tracker, March 2021)

Xiaomi bagged the second spot with a growth of 5% year-over-year. IDC noted that the Mi Band lineup saw a decline of 18.3% during the quarter. The hearable lineup, however, drove the overall growth as it grew by 55.5% since last year. The company also capitalised on Huawei's decline in different markets.

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Samsung was at the third spot with a shipment of 8.8 million units across its various brands. Huawei slipped to fourth place in the fourth quarter as the Chinese company continued to struggle with the sanctions imposed by the US government.

The pick of the new quarter is the Indian startup, boAt. The company made it to the top five with 5.4 million units shipped in the further quarter of 2020. IDC noted that boAT solely operates in India and extensively focuses on the hearable space. The company may face a challenge in the global wearables market which is mainly dominated by international brands.

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"2020 was the year that hearables became the must-have device," said Ramon T. Llamas, research director for IDC's Wearables Team. "Hearables provided a new degree of privacy, particularly during home quarantine but also while out in public. Meeting that demand was a long list of vendors with an equally long list of devices, spanning the range of feature sets and price points. Underpinning the hearables market was a constantly shifting competitive landscape, with companies slowly gaining a foothold in the market (Amazon and its Echo Buds and Frames), vendors introducing new form factors (Apple and AirPods Max), and new features making their way down the price curve, including automatic noise cancelling and voice assistant capability."

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First Published Date: 17 Mar, 13:50 IST
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