Noise, Fire Boltt surpass 5% of global smartwatch market share each

Indian smartwatch brands Noise and Fire Boltt showed excellent growth in the domestic market in 2022 and surpassed 5 per cent of the global market share each to rank fourth and fifth, respectively, a report showed on Wednesday.

Noise (5.6 per cent market share) and Fire Boltt (5.5 per cent) showed remarkable growth in the global market.

Although the Indian market's growth slowed in Q4 and failed to beat Huawei (6.7 per cent market share), it is attracting discussions on whether it will be able to threaten Samsung's position beyond Huawei next year, according to Counterpoint Research.

India's global market more than doubled compared to 2021. It grew steadily until Q3 2022 but fell 36 per cent QoQ in Q4.

"The third quarter of 2022 saw a big rise because most of the brands pushed high inventories into the channel ahead of the festive season. Therefore, we saw a decline in shipments in the fourth quarter," said senior analyst Anshika Jain.

Overall, the global smartwatch market shipments grew 12 per cent YoY in 2022, led by Apple with 34.1 per cent share.

"Apple strongly drove the average selling price (ASP) rise in the global smartwatch market in 2022, especially in the $400 and above price band. There are two main reasons for this ASP rise -- a diversified Apple smartwatch line-up and a rise in the exchange rate," said research analyst Woojin Son.

On the other hand, "we must be cautious about the low-price band of sub-$100. While this segment expanded in 2022 along with the remarkable growth of India's market, it showed a large withdrawal in Q4 when compared to Q3," Son added.

In 2022, Apple's shipments increased 17 per cent YoY as the Apple Watch Series 8, Ultra and SE 2022 enjoyed strong sales. In addition, annual shipments increased by 50 million for the first time, accounting for about 60 per cent of the global smartwatch market revenue and further widening the gap with Samsung at second spot.

Samsung's yearly shipments increased by about 12 per cent to account for about 10 per cent of global smartwatch shipments, said the report.