Indian wearable market grew 144.3 percent year-over-year (YoY) in 2020 making India the only country in the top 20 to have triple digit growth, according to market research firm International Data Corporation (IDC). The company tracks both smartwatches and wristbands, as well as earphones in this category. The data shows that in 2020, Truly Wireless Stereo (TWS) earphones saw a tenfold increase with shipments totaling 11.3 million units in 2020. Consumers also upgraded from wristbands to watches, leading to record annual shipments in the category.

India was among the top 20 countries to see the most growth in the wearable segment in 2020. It was the only country that had triple digit growth of 144.3 percent compared to the previous year according to data by IDC. There were 36.4 million wearable unit shipments by the end of 2020. These include wristbands, watches (basic watches and smartwatches), and earwear. Thanks to affordable launches, Earwear device shipments grew three times as much in 2020 compared to the previous year. This was also fueled by virtual meetings and e-learning requirements. TWS earphone shipments grew by 11.3 million units in 2020.

In Q4 last year, 15.2 million units of wearables were shipped by vendors which was a 198.2 percent growth YoY. In terms of watches shipments, more than 1.3 million units were shipped in the last quarter of 2020 which was the first time watch shipments crossed one million, as per the data.

Overall wristband shipments declined YoY as watches became more popular and more affordable. Xiaomi continued to capture the maximum market share for wristbands at 46.7 percent. Realme had 12.3 percent market share in wristbands in 2020. Watches saw 139.3 percent YoY growth with 2.6-million unit shipments in 2020. The watch category was dominated by Noise at 24.5 percent market share in 2020 and Realme took second place with 15.7 percent market share. When it comes to smartwatches, the report states Apple continued to lead the segment with 51 percent share in 2020.

Coming to earwear, 30.4 million units were shipped in 2020 which accounts for 83.6 percent of the overall wearable market in India. boAt lead both headphone and TWS segment with around 33 percent and 24.6 percent market share respectively. Realme had 13.5 percent market share in TWS segment last year.

IDC considers both basic watches and smartwatches under its ‘watch’ category Basic watches have a microprocessor, digitally processing data, have wireless connectivity, but do not run third-party applications. Smartwatches meet all four requirements and traditional analog/ digital watches are excluded. Devices considered under ‘earwear’ must offer functionality beyond just audio like a smart assistant, audio experience enhancement, health and fitness tracking, or language translation.

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