Affordability, availability push India’s true wireless stereo shipments to 20.3 mn in 2021: Report

True wireless stereo (TWS) shipments in India saw a 74.7% surge in 2021 at 20.3 million units, propelled by two factors — affordability and availability. Moreover, domestic players enjoyed the lion’s share in terms of market share, according to International Data Corporation’s (IDC) India Wearable Device Tracker.  
 
While the pandemic use cases continued to generate the demand for smart audio devices, with tripled shipments year-over-year (YoY) in the first half of the year, factors such as festive discounts, competitive pricing, multiple launches and new entrants led to strong adoption in the latter part of the year, the report said.
 
TWS refers to the use of Bluetooth wireless technology to deliver true stereo sound quality through earbuds.
 
“Affordability, availability, and appealing aesthetics are the key drivers for the TWS market as a must-have complementary device for a smartphone,” said Ekta Mittal, Market Analyst, Client Devices, IDC India.
 
“With increased awareness, consumers will continue to migrate from wired to wireless devices and upgrade to devices with better sound experience, longer battery and comfort,” she added.
 
Interestingly, Indian manufacturers accounted for over 65% of the shipments in the category in the year 2021 vis-à-vis less than 50% marketshare in the previous year. Imagine Marketing (which includes shipments from BoAt and Edict), emerged as the market leader by capturing nearly 40% of the shipments, which incidentally is higher than the combined share of the next seven manufacturers on the list.
 
Realme retained its second position with a 7.7% market share, while Nexxtbase (Noise) beat Samsung (at 4.7%) to the third position with a 7.5% market share. Noise also emerged as the fastest-growing brand in the segment with a 194.7% growth in sales over the previous year.
 
Upasana Joshi, Research Manager, IDC India, said, “The market is expected to grow multi-fold in 2022 as India-based vendors will continue to drive the affordability, attempt to reach tier 2 and 3 markets. We will also see new vendors entering the mid to premium end by appealing to users with specific features optimised for Gaming, active noise control, etc.”