IDC’s report on the wearables market in the fourth quarter and the whole year of 2019 – the wonder of audible devices

News unit EMGblog.com : Latest Report The research institute IDC shows that the market of wearable products has reached a new ceiling in the fourth quarter of 2019 with a growth of 82.3% and in this period of time 118.9 million wearable devices have been sold to the global markets. According to this report, which was published on March 10 of this year (March 20, 2018), this significant increase is largely related to hearables, which account for 55.3% of the total market. Other popular groups among wearable devices have also experienced favorable growth in the last season; As smartwatches with 15.3% and bracelets with 17.7% annual growth have left a good performance.

Of course, the share of wrist wear devices during The quarter ending December 2019 reported a total of 43.8%, which is a noticeable drop compared to the 68.6% share in the last holiday season. However, despite the decrease in the market share of this category of smart devices, the supply of wristbands in the final quarter of 2019 has increased by 16.3% compared to the same period last year. According to the annual statistics of the active manufacturers in the market, they have released a total of 336.5 million wearable devices in the world, which shows an increase of 89% compared to the figure of 178 million units in 2018.

According to Ramon T. Ramon T. Llamas, director of the wearables research group at IDC, “[2019] marked a strong step forward for the global wearables market.” From his point of view, due to the introduction of new products and smartphones that have abandoned the use of 3.5 mm headphone jack and wired headphones, users have been directed to buy hearables. Not to be outdone, however, are smartwatches and health trackers, both of which have posted fresh annual slumps by relying on low-cost models in high volumes.

In its division, IDC introduces those types of wearables as earwear or hearable devices that are attached to the ear or placed inside it. These devices must work wirelessly and, in addition to stereo sound, at least one feature includes health/fitness tracking, sound correction (not just noise reduction), translation into other languages ​​on the device itself, and the ability to activate a smart assistant by touch. have a button or keyword recognition (even if the smart assistant is installed on another device such as a smartphone).

Jitesh Ubrani, Director of Research Mobile Devices IDC, also pointing to the remarkable success of wearable devices in 2019, believes that the wearable market has quickly become a large market with the presence of companies such as Apple and Samsung and their acquisition of a larger share. While these tech giants put a lot of pressure on other manufacturing companies, a diverse set of innovations and differentiating features will continue to exist in smaller brands.

From the view of IDC, the top five companies producing wearable products from The supply volume, market share and annual growth in the last quarter of last year are:

Apple

This American company has the first place among wearable manufacturers with the supply of 43.4 million wearable devices in the fourth quarter of 2019. Apple Thanks to the new AirPods, AirPods Pro And also

Xiaomi

The second best manufacturer of wearable devices in the quarter ending December last year, Xiaomi. This company has been able to supply 12.8 million wearable devices to the global market, of which nearly 73.3% (9.4 million units) are wristbands. Of course, the share of wristbands in the wearable product portfolio of the Chinese company has decreased in the last season, compared to 81.8% in the same period of 2018, which shows the change in the trend of this manufacturer towards hearables and to some extent smart watches offered in China. .

Samsung

The third place in the wearables market in the fourth quarter of 2019 belongs to the Korean technology giant, which managed to bring 10.5 million wearable devices to the market. Also, Samsung witnessed the highest growth among the top five manufacturers and Its supply has increased by nearly 127.6 percent compared to the fourth quarter of 2018. This company plays an important role in this market with its attractive product portfolio and having various brands such as JBL and Infinity. Plus smart watches Galaxy Active and Galaxy Active2 has found its customers in a diverse range of users, from multi-purpose device lovers to fitness gadget enthusiasts. In order to further develop its market share, Samsung has put on the agenda the supply of wearable devices in the form of bundles with smartphones and then expanding them through operators.

Huawei

The Chinese giant has increased the supply of its wearable products by a total of 63.4% compared to 2018, despite the intense political pressure. Although wristbands comprise the majority of this company’s supply volume, smart watches Huawei including several examples of special watches for children and smartwatch Watch GT2 have experienced the fastest growth rate. Huawei has also added several new models to its portfolio of audible devices, which, along with other top manufacturers in the market, leaves customers open to choose.

Fitbit

The fifth company in this list is Fitbit, which has seen an increase in supply after two consecutive years of decline. Of course, the supply of fitness trackers is still the main focus of Fitbit, despite the company’s manufactured smartwatches have also reached a new record with 6 million units sold annually. A success that is mostly due to the presentation of Versa 2 and discounts on older models, i.e. Versa Lite and Ionic has arrived.

IDC experts have further pointed out the status of various wearable devices and their supply in 2019, which we will review.

Earwear

According to the IDC report last year, 170.5 million ear wear devices were sold worldwide, which indicates a staggering 250.5% growth of these products compared to 48.6 million units sold in 2018. Although the main focus of these devices is on the listening experience and things like sound reproduction and noise cancellation, the list of devices that offer other features such as sports coaching, translation and smart assistants extends the use of these devices beyond just listening to music. .

Wrist covers

This group of wearables has finished 2019 with the release of 69.4 million units, which shows an increase of about 37.4% compared to the 50.5 million units released in 2018. This significant growth has been achieved while in the past few years, the market of these products had experienced a constant supply of nearly 48 million units. Although the latest trend governing the design and production of wristbands has been imitating smart watches and providing features such as notifications and messages, the largest volume of supply last year belonged to trackers equipped with heart rate measurement and simple pedometers.

Smart watches

According to IDC statistics, 92.4 million smartwatch units were sold in 2019, which shows an increase of 22.7% compared to 75.3 million in 2018. Accordingly, Apple last year It finished as it started and remained the undisputed leader of the smartwatch market with a 28.5% share. Of course, it should not be overlooked that for the first time, the market share of the Cupertino giant, due to the presence of companies such as Huawei, Samsung and smaller manufacturers, has fallen below forty percent.