Homegrown brands lead Indian smartwatch market to highest ever growth

Consumers in India seem to be spending more than ever on smartwatches. According to a third quarter report from market research firm Counterpoint Research, smartwatches registered the “highest ever” growth in shipments during the quarter ended September 2021, growing 159% sequentially and 293% year-on-year. The growth comes at a time when electronics companies have been struggling to ramp up shipments due to global supply constraints and chip shortages.

“Q3 is crucial for the smartwatch players, as this is the time when they witness the highest growth. To meet the anticipated surge in demand during the festive sale, the brands push increased shipments into the channel,” said Anshika Jain, Senior Research Analyst at Counterpoint. 

Interestingly, unlike smartphones, where Samsung is the only non-Chinese brand in the top five, homegrown brands are leading the smartwatch segment. “The market remained competitive in Q3 2021 with Noise and Boat together capturing almost 50% of it. Fire-Boltt, Apple and realme emerged as the fastest growing brands during the quarter.”

Jain noted that domestic brands have captured around 75% of the market in Q2, 2021, compared to 38% in the same quarter last year. “This is the highest contribution from the Indian players so far. The strategy of celebrity endorsements, introductory pricing schemes, discount offers, affordable and feature-rich devices and increasing the frequency of new launches has worked well for the Indian brands,” she added.

In terms of market share, homegrown Noise and boAt took the top two sports, capturing 25% and 17% of the market, respectively. Another homegrown brand, called Fire-Boltt, became the fastest growing smartwatch company of the year, clocking 394% sequential growth during the third quarter.