Shipments of wearable devices such as Apple Watch and AirPods will exceed 400 million units worldwide in 2020



Global shipments of wearable devices reached 153.5 million units in the fourth quarter of 2020 (October-December), reaching 444.7 million units for the full year of 2020, up 28.4% from the previous year. Research company IDC announced. IDC believes that the global epidemic of the new coronavirus is having an impact.

Consumer Enthusiasm for Wearable Devices Drives the Market to 28.4% Growth in 2020, According to IDC

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IDC Research Manager Jitesh Ubrani said, 'The new coronavirus pandemic has made the wearable device market very strong as it has made many consumers aware of the importance of health and fitness. Fitness programs that can be run at home. Has become an important content of wearable devices offered by various companies, and advances in sensors such as skin temperature, ECG (ECG), and heart rate tracking have also made users and healthcare professionals sick. It's easier to track. '

The graph below summarizes the quarterly wearable device shipments and ASP (Average Selling Price) trends from the fourth quarter of 2019 to the fourth quarter of 2020. According to IDC, the number of wristband-type wearable device shipments (purple) was 11.5% of the total number of wearable device shipments, a decrease of 17.8% from the previous quarter. IDC believes that the shortage of semiconductors in 2020 will have a major impact on this. On the other hand, the most popular wearable devices are hearable devices such as wireless earphones such as AirPods and Galaxy Buds. Hearable device shipments (green) accounted for 64.2% of total wearable device shipments, more than 2.5 times the share of watch-type devices such as the Apple Watch (light green, 24.1%).



Below is a table summarizing the shipment ratio and market share for each company in the fourth quarter of 2020 (top) and the full year of 2020 (bottom).



Apple, which releases the AirPods series and Apple Watch, accounts for 36.2% of shipments, leading the market.

Apple Watch Series 6 , Apple Watch SE , and Apple Watch Series 3 released in 2020 were particularly strong, and shipments of the Apple Watch series increased by 45.6% from the previous quarter. In addition, the number of AirPods series shipments increased sharply, but the growth rate seems to have slowed down a little.

Xiaomi has the second largest market share, with 5% year-over-year growth. However, shipments of Mi Band , Xiaomi's wristband type wearable device, decreased by 18.3% year-on-year due to a shortage of semiconductors. On the other hand, the Airdots series of hearable devices performed well, growing 55.5% year-on-year.

Samsung, which has the third largest market share, also said that the hearable device division has grown significantly. IDC reports that although wristband-type devices are also developing low-priced brands and were able to compete well with Chinese companies, the number of wristband-type devices shipped was relatively small at about 1.3 million units. In addition, watch-type devices such as Galaxy watches also decreased in the fourth quarter of 2020.



Huawei, which suffered from sanctions from the US government in 2020, has the fourth largest market share. Shipments in China increased by 9.4%, but declined in previously strong markets such as Asia-Pacific, Middle East / Africa / Western Europe. However, Huawei has launched its own OS for smartphones, 'Harmony OS, ' and IDC commented that it is expected that the cooperation with its own smart watch will be further enhanced.

BoAt is an Indian startup and a fast-growing electronics manufacturer. BoAt operates only in the Indian market, and although its products are limited to hearable devices, it still shipped 5.4 million units and jumped to the 5th place in the world market share. However, IDC speculated that it would be difficult for BoAt to expand its business globally, as markets other than India are dominated by the top four companies.

in Note,   Hardware, Posted by log1i_yk