IDC report: Wearables shipments down 21% on year in July-Sep: IDC

According to data from market research firm IDC, shipments in the three-month period fell 20.7% year on year, with smartwatches witnessing the highest impact.

ET reported on November 5 about a protracted slowdown in wearables firms over the last 12-15 months.

“This downturn can primarily be attributed to a reduction in new product launches and a cautious inventory strategy, even during the festive season,” IDC noted.

Big fall for smartwatches

Smartwatch shipments fell 44.8% year on year at 9.3 million units. “During the festive period sales, brands focused on clearing older inventory by offering upfront discounts especially on etailer platforms,” IDC noted.

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In terms of market share, despite a 26.8% on-year fall in volumes, Gurugram-based Noise topped the list with a 27.4% market share – followed by Warburg Pincus-backed Boat and Tata Group’s Titan.Bootstrapped firm Fireboltt saw a drastic reduction in its market share, which fell to 6.8% in July-September this year, against 23.6% in the same period last year. Fireboltt’s volumes fell 83.6% in the quarter.

Titan and Boult were the only two major players that saw smartwatch volumes rising in the September quarter.

Earwear shipments down too

Shipments of earwear devices such as wireless earphones also declined 7.5% in the quarter to 28.5 million units.

Boat is the largest player in this segment but lost some market share during the quarter, which came in at 36.8%. Its volumes fell 4.2%.

ETtech

Meanwhile, Boult – the winner of The Economic Times Startup Awards 2024 in the Bootstrap Champ category – increased its market share in the wireless audio device segment to 13.5% from 8.7% last year, as per IDC.

“In the earwear category, shipments to the offline channel grew by 9.4% YoY, with a share increasing from 29.1% to 34.4% in 3Q24 (July-September). Online shipments declined by 14.4% YoY. Notably, in the smartwatch category, the share of online channels has increased for the past three quarters to 63.8% in 3Q24,” IDC said.

ET has reported earlier that Boat, which is planning to make a second attempt at going public, recorded a 5% drop in its revenue during FY24 at Rs 3,122 crore. However, it also halved its net loss to Rs 70.8 crore during the year.

Also Read: Wearables brand Noise posts loss in FY24, revenue growth flat amid slump in sector