Last year, 3.64 crore wearable gadgets sold in the country, sales increased 144% year-on-year

Last year saw a record boom in sales of wearable gadgets. Industry Tracker International Data Corporation (IDC) reported in its report that a total of 3.64 crore wearable devices were sold in India last year. This is a growth of 144.3% annually. This growth is particularly driven by the growing demand for earwear devices and watch. Both categories recorded the highest sales last year.

The report revealed that India remained the only country in the top-20, registering a three-digit increase in sales of wearables. With this, India remained the third-largest wearable market in the world.

This was the most demanding category in 2020

1. Wristbands: The sales of wristbands fell by 34.3% in 2020 as compared to 2019. Last year, a total of 3.3 million wristbands were sold. Since the beginning of the sale of wristbands in India, 2020 was the first year in which this category saw a decline. The main reason for this decline is that many watches are now available in the market at the same price. Xiaomi leads the category in 2020 with a 46.7% market share. Realme (which entered this segment in 2020 itself) came second with 12.3% market share.
2. Watches: While demand for wristbands was decreasing on the one hand, on the other hand, the demand for watch increased considerably. Last year, a total of 26 lakh watches were sold. It registered an increase of 139.3% year-on-year. Noise led the category with 24.5% market share followed by Realme with 15.7% share. Smartwatch accounted for 24.5% in the watch category. In 2020, Apple leads the smartwatch category with a 51% share.
3. Earwear: Earwear accounted for 83.6% share in the overall wearable market. Last year, a total of 3.04 crore earwears were sold. Boat leads with one-third of shipments in the category. Samsung ranked second in its portfolio (which includes JBL, Harman Cards, Infinity) with 14.5% share. Boat leads the category with 24.6% market share followed by Realme with 13.5% market share.

Earwear sales increased 3-fold in the fourth quarter of 2020

Earwear device shipments increased more than threefold in 2020 compared to 2019, especially due to the economical launch. Apart from entertainment, consumption of these devices has also increased due to increasing demand for virtual meetings and e-learning. The fourth quarter saw a total sale of 13 million earwears.

October-December 2020 was the biggest quarter for wearables in India, with sales showing a three-digit growth in this period. Vendors sold a total of 1.52 crore wearable devices in the fourth quarter. It registered a growth of 198.2% year-on-year.

This was the first quarter when watch sales crossed the 1 million mark. During this period, vendors sold a total of more than 1.3 million watches. The highest demand was for Noise Colorfit Pro, Realme Watch, and Apple Watch Series 6.