While Apple and Samsung have WatchOS and Tizen, other players are gradually adopting WearOS by Google following the Smartphone trend where Android by Google is the default OS for most of the OEMs
As per the 1st edition of techARC’s India Wristables Market Report (part of techARC India Connected Consumer Market Scan Dashboard), 5.4 million Wristables (fitness bands and smart watches) where shipped for the calendar year 2020. This translated in Rs 3,837 crore (US $540 Mn) in terms of value.
“Wristables have become a key smart wearable category for users even beyond health and fitness tracking. For instance, it definitely reduces the frequent unlocking of smartphones to check on notifications and messages, where users don’t necessarily need to respond and are mostly for information only,” said Faisal Kawoosa, Founder & Chief Analyst, techARC.
“This uptick has also encouraged several OEMs like OPPO, Realme and now OnePlus to foray in category. I expect OEMs tilting more towards Smart Watches than fitness bands as it gives them more revenue as well as profit margins,” Faisal concluded.
Key Technology Trends
About 22 per cent of the smart watches shipped were equipped with e-sim feature. This attach rate, as per the report, might not significantly change for a while with Apple and Samsung as the key players promoting e-sim in Smart Watches. Also, users are not keen to have a stand alone cellular connectivity for Smart Watches and see them more as an extension to the Smartphone.
“While Apple and Samsung have WatchOS and Tizen, other players are gradually adopting WearOS by Google following the Smartphone trend where Android by Google is the default OS for most of the OEMs. We expect WearOS to become the default 3rd party OS for Smart Watches,” read the report.
It added, “Health tracking has become more important since the pandemic of Covid-19 surfaced. As a consequence, SPO2 feature to measure oxygen saturation attach rate is increasing in Wristables. This will become a mainstream feature going forward.”
Top five leaders
In terms of market standings, Xiaomi and Realme were able to make it to the top 5 leaders by both measures of volumes and value for the calendar year. By value revenue, Apple and Samsung lead in this space as well owing to their considerably higher price points in comparison to other major competitors who focus on the affordable segment. Noise, a smart accessories brand which started off with bands, was able to capture 3rd position by volumes during 2020.
Double clicking the market standings, in the Fitness Bands category, Xiaomi and Realme stood at No 1 and No 2 respectively both in terms of volume and value market measurement. boAt, a new entrant, emerged in top 5, securing 5th ranking in volume and value for the calendar year 2020.
Noise led the Smart Watch segment of Wristables followed by Realme and Apple in terms of volume units. However, by value Noise stood at 4th with seven per cent of market share. By value the smart watch segment was led by Apple at 37 per cent, followed by Samsung at 18 per cent, and Fossil at 10 per cent.
