Wearable shipments grow thanks to hearables and wristbands, analysts say
Hearing aids are becoming increasingly popular.
Nuheara
Worldwide shipping of wearables grew by more than 29% year-on-year According to a report by market research company IDC on Thursday, the total volume of devices in the first quarter of 2020 was 72.6 million units. Much of this increase was due to growth in hearing aids and bracelets, with a decline in smart and simple watches.
In the bracelet category are devices like that Fitbit Charge 4 and cheaper options from Xiaomi and Huawei helped this sector grow 16.2% in the quarter. Hearables grew 68.3% and accounted for 54.9% of the overall market.
“The hearing aid category seemed to be resistant to the market oppressing forces COVID-19, ” Jitesh Ubrani, Research Director for IDC Tracker for mobile devicessaid in a press release. “Consumers were demanding these sophisticated earphones not only to play audio but also to increase productivity, since many of them were forced to work from home and were looking for ways to reduce ambient noise while they were stayed in touch with them Smartphones and smart assistants. “
The COVID-19 pandemic had a negative impact on the supply of smart and simple watches, many of which share components and resources with phones and PCs, which were also affected in the first quarter, IDC said. However, some vendors, including Garmin and Huawei, have seen remarkable growth as they are less dependent on Chinese markets and are expanding more to the US, Europe, and other parts of Asia.
Apple was the top wearables company againwith a share of 29.3% and 21.2 million units delivered. While the Apple Watch experienced setbacks due to supply chain issues, the Beats and Airpods range was able to offset this decline.
Xiaomi came in second place with 7.3 million wristwatches and watch shipments. Samsung took third place. Hearing aid business accounted for 74% of all deliveries in the first quarter, compared to 58.9% in the first quarter of the previous year. This is mainly due to the success of the latest generation of Galaxy Buds Buds pluswho delivered over 4 million units in the first quarter of 2020.
Huawei and its subsidiary Honor took fourth place and, despite the ban, grew in China “thanks to a strong online presence and close relationships with retailers,” IDC said.
Fitbit finished fifth, down 26.1% in the quarter due to the fact that much of its production was in China, where there were delivery problems for several weeks. The competition from technology giants like Apple and Samsung and the lack of an audible Fitbit have made it difficult for the company to grow, IDC said.
