Hearables a 'Must-Have' as Wearables Rise 28% in '20, Says IDC
Hearables were the “must-have device” of 2020, with 64.2% of the wearables category, reported IDC analyst Ramon Llamas Monday. Hearables offered “a new degree of privacy” when users were at home and in public, said the analyst, noting a long…
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list of vendors offering various models with a range of feature sets and price points. Llamas highlighted Apple with AirPods Max and Amazon’s entry into the hearables space with Echo Buds and Frames, citing a “constantly shifting competitive landscape.” Also driving the category were new features making their way down the price curve: automatic noise cancellation and voice assistant capability. Overall, global wearables shipments grew 27.2% in Q4 vs. the year-ago quarter, rising 28.4% year on year to 444.7 million units. Q4 shipments were driven mostly by new devices and lower prices, with the broader 2020 trend due to the surge in consumer spending for electronics, said the research firm. COVID-19 “put health and fitness at the forefront of many consumers’ minds," said analyst Jitesh Ubrani. In addition to in-home fitness programs, consumers bought devices measuring temperature and heart conditions to track diseases, he said. Growth was uneven in wearables due to component shortages. Wristband shipments fell 17.8% in Q4, to 11.5% of shipments; watches were 24.1%. Apple led the wearables segment with 36.2% share in Q4, with Watch shipments rising 45.6% year on year on the company's three-tier price offering. Hearables shipments slowed to 22% growth, from 28% in Q3 and 29% in Q2, IDC said, noting the “huge amount of adoption” the market had in recent quarters. Samsung, with 8.5% Q4 wearables share, followed second-place Xiaomi, shipping 8.8 million wearables. Samsung’s low-cost wristbands got more traction and were able to compete with Chinese vendors in a few markets. Samsung's watch shipments declined to 2.9 million in Q4, IDC said. For the year, Apple led wearables shipments with 151.4 million units (34.1% share), followed by Xiaomi (11.4%), Huawei (9.8%) and Samsung (40 million shipments, 9%).