Hearables shipment into India jumps 700% in 2019, Apple leads: Report
Apple with 27% market share of the shipments was the leading hearable vendor, riding on strong sales of second generation AirPods.Access to 4G speeds at low cost and the boom in OTT consumption on smartphones were largely responsible for driving the demand for hearables
NEW DELHI: Hearable devices shipments into India jumped 700% year-on-year (YoY) in 2019, emerging as the fastest growing segment in wearables, said Counterpoint’s latest market report. Apple with 27% market share of the shipments was the leading hearable vendor, riding on strong sales of second generation AirPods.
Access to 4G speeds at low cost and the boom in OTT consumption on smartphones were largely responsible for driving the demand for hearables. “The increasing audio content consumption, portability, and advancements like health and fitness tracking, smart assistants are making TWS popular among smartphone users and driving the demand," Shilpi Jain, research analyst at Counterpoint said in a press statement.
Noise and JBL with 12% and 8% market share were the other two vendors in top three. Together, the top three vendors accounted for half of the total shipments in 2019. Samsung and Realme are the other two vendors in the top five with 7% market share each.
Despite high price point, Apple AirPods received a lot of attention due to Apple’s strong reputation, noise cancellation feature and easy integration with Apple devices, the reports states. In terms of revenue share, Counterpoint expects Apple to remain the dominant vendor going forward. Apple recently launched the third generation AirPods with swappable earplugs.
In a market dominated by global vendors, Noise is the only homegrown company with a market share in double digits. Long battery backup, good audio quality, and affordable pricing are some of the elements that worked in Nosie’s favour with products like Shots X1 Air and X5 emerging as the two of the top five best selling hearables in 2019.
Also known as TWS (true wireless stereo), hearables include all compact headphones that work wirelessly and may have in-built voice assistants such as Amazon’s Alexa and Google Assistant. The basic ones can be used to make/receive calls or listen to music or for video playback. The advanced ones even have noise cancellation features. Some of the hearables can even track steps and workouts.
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