Riding on the newly-launched Mi band 3, Xiaomi continued to take the lead in the Indian smart wearables market with a 41 per cent market share, followed by GOQii in second position in the third quarter of 2018.

Xiaomi has been in the forefront for the fifth consecutive quarter, while its Mi band 3 became the most shipped product in the history of wearables in India. Although its shipments witnessed a 20 per cent fall quarter-over-quarter, it saw a healthy 77 per cent rise in Q3 unlike in the year 2017.

GOQii continues to hold the second position with a 47 per cent year-on-year (YoY) growth and 19 per cent market share. It is, even today, the leading player in the commercial segment, as two-thirds of its shipments are billed to enterprises under the corporate wellness programme.

Titan phased out its older models and launched Fastrack's Reflex 2.0 i n the quarter. It helped the brand to get a healthy 70 per cent sequential growth in its overall shipments and maintain third position in the overall wearable segment.

 

idc-imagejpg
 

Samsung stood fourth, replacing Fitbit, as its shipments tripled in comparison to the previous quarter. Samsung had clubbed the Gear Sport and Galaxy Watch with the launch of Samsung Note 9 and, later, had offered them at a discounted price.

Fossil bagged the fifth place. The shipments witnessed a strong triple-digit sequential growth as Q Explorist Gen 3 recorded healthy shipments in this quarter.

An overview of the Indian smart wearables market

The smart wearables, which can run third-party applications on its own, saw two successive quarters of double-digit growth and shipped 102,000 units during the quarter. The reporting quarter becomes the first quarter to cross the 100,000 units shipment mark in the country, according to an International Data Corporation (IDC) study.

The overall India wearables market saw a 17 per cent YoY growth during the quarter as vendors shipped a total of 8.97 lakh units into the country. However, the overall shipments fell 11 per cent from the previous quarter largely because of the double-digit decline in the basic wearables.

While July and August remained flat in terms of new shipments, September did see some recovery. During this period, the vendors had started preparing the channel for the upcoming online festivals.

"It is too early to say that the Indian wearables market has started moving towards smart wearables. However, vendors have started analysing the gaps in the prices between the basic and smart wearables," Jaipal Singh, Associate Research Manager - Client Devices, IDC India, said.

"While vendors need to identify a new pricing sweet spot for smartwatches, the next challenge is to address the positioning of watches. These are still seen as vanity products in India. Also, many vendors haven't explored the children’s segment. This could be a volume-driver for this category, as children are more comfortable with technology as well as new products," he added.

What does the future hold?

"The overall wearable market is expected to continue its double-digit growth in 2019. While the growth of basic wearables will slow down as users look at upgrading to smarter wearable products, it will remain the dominant category in India for the next few years," Navkendar Singh, Associate Research Director, Client Devices & IPDS, IDC India, said.

Related Topics
comment COMMENT NOW