Global Wearable Shipments Grew Strongly In 2022: Canalys

Smartphone shipments may have declined yr-on-year (YoY) globally in 2020 attributable to the COVID-19 pandemic-induced economic recession too as related supply issues. All the same, wearable devices, which are primarily used in pair with a smartphone, still managed to showroom a positive tendency final yr.

Co-ordinate to research and analytics house Canalys, global shipments of clothing audio products, which include truly wireless (TWS) earbuds, wireless earphones, and wireless headphones, grew xx percent YoY in 2020. Global shipments of wearable bands, which include smartwatches, basic watches, and basic bands, as well grew 10 per centum YoY concluding twelvemonth.

The YoY growth charge per unit is much smaller compared to the previous year though. According to the report, global shipments of clothing audio products had grown 58 percentage YoY in 2019, while that of vesture bands had grown 46 percent YoY.

However, considering the touch on of the still-ongoing global wellness crisis on the tech industry, or perhaps the global economic system, this positive tendency in clothing device shipment is somewhat surprising. Growing consciousness towards physical health has driven the sales of smartwatches and fettle bands, the written report says.

Shipment of basic bands declined 27 percent YoY in the fourth quarter of 2020. However, the demand for smartwatches and fettle bands, which usually come up costlier, was so great that the overall market stayed flat.

The growth in shipment of wearable audio products, on the other manus, is a result of newer, low-cost devices. TWS earbuds comprised the majority of these shipments.

"Due to the market's low barrier to entry, especially for TWS devices, where the mature supply chain resulted in better devices at lower price points, vast shipments flooded the marketplace in a brusk menstruum of time," said Canalys Research Annotator Cynthia Chen.

Apple maintains its dominance in the article of clothing market in 2020 as well

Every bit shown in the latest Canalys report, Apple'southward authorisation in the wearable market remained unchallenged in 2020 besides. The Cupertino giant particularly dominated the sound sector. It shipped 108.9 million smart audio products terminal twelvemonth, capturing 25.ii pct of the global market place. Samsung and Xiaomi came 2nd and third respectively with an eight.9 percent and 5.9 percent market share. The two companies shipped 38.3 one thousand thousand and 25.4 1000000 wear audio products respectively.

Overall, 432.1 million units of clothing sound devices were shipped globally in 2020. Sony was the only major OEM that saw a negative YoY growth concluding year (-iii.one pct). Chinese audio manufacturer Edifier, meanwhile, registered a staggering 158.1 percent YoY growth during the same period.

The numbers for the quaternary quarter alone also show a similar trend. Apple is nevertheless at the pinnacle, with Samsung, Xiaomi, and Sony following distantly.

While Apple dominated the article of clothing band segment as well in Q4 2020, Xiaomi leapfrogged it for the whole year. The Chinese manufacturer was likewise the biggest article of clothing band vendor in 2019, so it'southward not very surprising. Huawei as well maintained its third spot, registering a significant 46.6 percent YoY growth.

Fitbit was the biggest loser with a 16.iii percent YoY reject final twelvemonth. Samsung's wearable band shipments also marginally dropped in 2020. Overall, the global shipments of habiliment bands reached 185.1 million units terminal year.

Canalys expects the wearable industry to experience the effects of the COVID-xix pandemic-related supply concatenation constraints this year as well. As a event, the firm at present forecasts the global shipment of clothing audio products to grow 15.6 percent YoY to reach 500 one thousand thousand units in 2021. Meanwhile, the global shipment of wearable bands could grow 10.2 percent to achieve 204 one thousand thousand units this year.