Hearables shipment in India jump by 700 per cent in 2019; Apple dominates, Realme takes giant leap

The hearable devices shipments in India witnessed a jump of whopping 700 per cent Year-on-Year in 2019. It emerged as the fastest growing segment in wearables, said Counterpoint’s latest market report. The segment was once again dominated by Apple with a market share of 27 per cent and saw a huge jump by Realme. Apple’s dominance came on the back of 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.

Apple was followed by Noise and JBL with 12 per cent and 8 per cent market share. 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 per cent market share each.

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The report said that Apple AirPods received a good response even as the tech giant faces stiff competition as many OEMs are entering into the segment. It added that factors like its reputation as a pioneer, noise-cancelling feature, easy integration with Apple devices and quick charging have helped it maintain its leadership position.

“An all-round connected devices IoT strategy, is prompting entry of many smartphone OEMs in this fast-growing segment. Some brands are using an affordable pricing strategy and strong growth momentum while some are leveraging cutting edge features to command a premium. In all, TWS is becoming an important part of smartphone OEMs’ connected devices strategy and drive ecosystem stickiness. Expect more OEMs to jump in and follow Apple, Samsung, and Realme in the India market where the attach rate for wireless buds is still quite low. Further, the current lockdown situation due to COVID-19 will accelerate the demand for TWS as many people are working from home and connecting through voice and video calls,” Research Analyst, Satyajit Sinha said.