The Indian wearable market saw a massive growth of 168.3% year-over-year (YoY) growth in 2019, shipping about 14.9 million units during the year. Of this 5.1 million units were shipped in the Q4 of 2019 alone. Ear-wear saw a huge YoY growth of 443.6% and wrist band wearables saw a growth of 52.6% YoY.
Basic wearables accounted for 96.2% of India’s wearables market, which calculates for a 177% growth YoY in 2019. Smart wearables (can run third party apps on device) grew by 49.5% YoY, accounting for 3.8% of the overall wearable shipments in 2019.
Wrist bands shipped nearly 5.3 million units that calculated to a 52.6% YoY growth. The top 2 manufacturers were Xiaomi and Titan with 48.9% category share and 14.5% category share respectively. Watches on the other hand, saw growth of 77.5% YoY, shipping 933 thousand units. Fossil took the lead with 30.3% market share, followed by Apple with a 26.6% share. Huami, the makers of the Amazfit band lead the market share in the basic wearables category with its aggressive pricing and features.
The biggest category however, was the the ear-wear category. It grew a massive 443.6% in 2019 compared to last year with BoAt Lifestyle leading the market with 27.3% share. The truly wireless segment continued to be dominated by Apple, with the AirPods garnering 43.1% market share in 2019.
Commenting on the massive growth, Anisha Dumbre, Market Analyst, IDC India said:
Ear-worn devices have found huge appeal with consumers, who are spoiled for choice with a variety of models at different price points. Affordable neckbands are leading the charge of migration from wired to wireless in this category. At the same time, truly wireless devices with improved battery life and connectivity are attracting users to spend more. As more vendors entered this segment with affordable options, the average selling price (ASP) of the category came down to $39 in 2019 from $63 a year ago, resulting in massive growth in this category.