Indian wearables market declines for 2nd straight quarter by 20.7%: IDC

Despite the festive season, India’s wearables device market—including smartwatches, smartbands, and earwear—declined for the second consecutive quarter by 20.7 per cent year-on-year (Y-o-Y) to 38 million units in the third quarter (Q3) of calendar year (CY) 2024, according to a report by the International Data Corporation (IDC).

 

Analysts attributed this downturn primarily to a reduction in new product launches and a cautious inventory strategy, even during the festive season.

 

Nevertheless, the average selling price (ASP) for overall wearables grew for the first time since Q2 CY19 by 1.3 per cent to $21.3 in the September quarter, the report said.

 

“As smartwatch shipments saw a swift uptake in 2023, white box shipments also increased multi-fold during the year. However, tapering demand for smartwatches in 2024 led to a sudden drop in the share of these long-tail brands, significantly impacting overall festive shipments,” said Anand Priya Singh, market analyst, Smart Wearable Devices, IDC India.

 

Smartwatches continued to struggle, declining by 44.8 per cent Y-o-Y to 9.3 million units. During the festive season sales, brands focused on clearing older inventory by offering upfront discounts, especially on e-tailer platforms. However, smartwatch ASPs increased by 1.4 per cent Y-o-Y from $25.8 to $26.2.

 

Smartwatch shipments by long-tail brands, including white boxes, decreased significantly by 59.1 per cent in Q3, after seeing strong growth of 328.8 per cent Y-o-Y in the same period a year ago, the report added.

 

Similarly, the earwear category declined 7.5 per cent Y-o-Y to 28.5 million units. Within earwear, the share of Truly Wireless Stereo (TWS) reached a record 73.2 per cent, up from 68.2 per cent a year ago. Earwear ASPs increased by 5.9 per cent to $19.2.

 

Noise (Nexxbase) continued to lead the smartwatch category, while BoAt (Imagine Marketing) focused on stock clearance during festive sales. Boult and Realme were the only companies among the top five to register growth of 32.5 per cent and 56.5 per cent, respectively.

 

In the TWS category, Boult and Realme registered growth of 55 per cent and 94.6 per cent, respectively, among the top five. The smartphone brand Nothing grew by a healthy 308.2 per cent Y-o-Y in the overall wearable market.

 

In the earwear category, shipments to the offline channel grew by 9.4 per cent Y-o-Y, with the share increasing from 29.1 per cent to 34.4 per cent in the September quarter. Meanwhile, online shipments declined by 14.4 per cent Y-o-Y. Notably, in the smartwatch category, the share of online channels has increased for the past three quarters to 63.8 per cent in Q3.