The wearables market saw significant growth worldwide in 2020, as per a report by International Data Corporation (IDC). The major contributor to the growing wearable market is Apple, which topped the list in terms of market share and shipments.
This was followed by the Chinese company Xiaomi in the second position and Samsung at the third spot. Here’s a look at all the numbers we have with us.
Wearables markets saw growth in 2020
The report suggests that the wearables market grew by 28.4 per cent globally, leading to a total of 444.7 million units shipped in the year. There has been a year-on-year (YoY) growth of 27.2 per cent with 153.5 million shipped units in Q4 2021.
Apple led the pack with a 36.2 per cent market share in Q4 2020, mostly due to the Apple Watch (Series 6, Watch SE, Series 3) and the AirPods. The Cupertino tech major shipped around 55.6 million units in the last quarter of 2020.
Image: IDC
The second position was taken by Xiaomi with an 8.8 per cent market share and 13.5 million shipped units. While the Mi Band shipments declined, the Xiaomi audio segment grew. Samsung stood in the third position with an 8.5 per cent market share (majorly due to the affordable wristbands) and 13 million shipped units. Huawei and BoAt took the fourth and the fifth positions, respectively.
While Huawei accounted for a 6.7 per cent market share and shipped 10.2 million units with a major focus on the smartwatches, BoAt had a 3.5 per cent market share and shipped 5.4 million units for its hearables. The rest of the 36.4 per cent was contributed by other brands.
The reason for this is attributed to the Coronavirus pandemic period and the holiday season, which led people into investing more in wearables to keep an eye on their fitness and health.
But, not all was well!
While the wearables market (which includes earwear, smartwatches, watches, fitness bands as per IDC) grew last year, not all the categories contributed. It is revealed that wristbands declined by 17.8 per cent and accounted for only 11.5 per cent of the total shipments in Quarter 4, 2020.
However, hearables grew with a 62.2 per cent share in shipments, followed by watches with a 24.1 per cent share.
