Hearables Lead Wearables Market

India’s wearables market recorded 14.9 million shipments in 2019, says IDC

The India wearables market completed another record year as the shipments of wearable devices saw an impressive 168.3% year-over-year (YoY) growth in 2019, closing the year with 14.9 million units, says the recent data from the IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Wearable Device Tracker, 4Q19.

Basic wearables continue to dominate India’s market with a 96.2% category share, up 177% YoY in 2019. Smart wearables that can run third-party applications on the device itself, accounted for 3.8% of the overall wearable shipments in 2019 and registered 49.5% growth from the previous year. Accounting for most shipment volumes, the earwear category grew fivefoldshipping 8.5 million units, watches grew 77.5% while wrist bands ended the year as the second-largest wearable category.

In the last quarter of the year (4Q19), wearables vendors shipped a total of 5.1 million units, making it the seventh consecutive quarter of double-digit growth in shipments. It was also the biggest quarter for wrist bands; with 1.5 million unit shipments in a single quarter, witnessing 30.9% YoY growth.